
Class. 
Book. 



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Ciopyiight W. 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A STUDY IN 



The Origin and Signification of 

THE SURNAME McALEER 



AND 



A CONTRIBUTION TO 



McALEER GENEALOGY 




Compiled and Published by 

GEORGE McALEER, M. D. 

Worcester, Mass. 

1909 



C " 



Copyright, 1909, 

BY George Mcaleer, 
Worcester, Mass. 



LIBRARY of;C»NGKESS 
Twc Ct)'Dli?s Received 

MAY 20 laOiJ 




DEDICATION 



in the first instance, to the 

memory of an honorable father, 

a loving mother, 

and the sister and brothers 

with whom 

the sunshine hours of childhood 

and youth 

were spent in the old home, 

and, secondly, 

to all who worthily bear 

The Surname McAleer 

this humble effort 

is most respectfully dedicated 

BY 



The Author, 



PROLOGOMENA. 



THE IRISH EMIGRANT. 

* ' They are going, always going, 
From the valleys and the hills ; 
They are leaving far behind them 
Heathery moors and mountain rills. 



»» 



Aye ! aye ! !— always going,— going,— going,— 
and leaving behind them more than heathery 
moors and mountain rills. The records of heaven 
alone can reveal the countless number of family 
ties disrupted and torn asunder, the mountains of 
broken hearts, and the trials and sorrowings of 
centuries left behind as a cruel legacy and monu- 
ment to English persecution and unchristian hate. 

Well may Burns say that 

** Man's inhumanity to man 
Makes countless millions mourn." 

In the annals of Time no darker page of man's 
inhumanity to man can be found than that upon 
which is written the record of the wrongs and sor- 
rows inflicted upon the people of Ireland for cen- 
turies by England— that cruel conglomeration of 
the human family now called the " Anglo-Saxon." 



Prologomena. 

The pathetic tale has been repeated in every 
clime by her exiled children and their descendants, 
and sorrowing Ireland alone remains, the only 
semblance of a nation among the nations of the 
world of centuries ago, to lift up her voice in pro- 
test against the unjust usurper and persecutor, in 
behalf of her rights to Christian treatment, and 
to nationhood. She has ever been buoyed up by 
lofty ideals, steadfastness, and loyalty to con- 
science. These have ever been her star of hope— 
prmciples that must win in the days of tottering 
thrones and tumbling djmasties. Is this not sig- 
nificant and full of promise ? Who will dare fore- 
cast her future ? 

In her darkest hour she has never forgotten her 
loved and widely-scattered offspring, and they in 
turn long to see the day when right will triuniph 
—when she will come into her own again;— and 
they pray that her future may be as helpful, uplift- 
ing, and glorious as in the olden time of her great- 
ness—a nation among nations as honored, as pros- 
perous, and as happy as she has in her more 
immediate past been circumscribed, despoiled 
persecuted, maligned, and miserable. ' 

At the doorway of the twentieth century, and 
especially in this land of Liberty, it is difficult if 
not impossible, to fully realize how great the per- 
secutions and oppressions were that drove mil- 
lions from their native land,— from their humble 
homes, from the graves of their sires, that rent 
asunder the ties of kin and blood, and forced them 
to seek a habitation and living in the land of 
Btrangers m all parts of the world, and the attend- 
ant trials, hardships and heart-burnings. 

Although born in America, and not having 
passed through such bitter experiences person- 



Peologomena. 

ally, the tale of such trials and hardships is vivid- 
ly and indelibly impressed upon my memory, 
having often heard it in childhood from the lips of 
my father when he told his children of his suffer- 
ings and that of his kith and kin in the old land,— 
sufferings inflicted by the iron heel of despotism 
and the cruelties of the oppressor, which is abund- 
antly confirmed and emphasized by the teachings 
of history. 

The fact that my ancestors were driven 
into exile and compelled to endure the toil and 
hardships of a Canadian wilderness to escape the 
inhuman persecutions from which they suffered in 
their native land, as did the people of Ireland for 
centuries before them, is a sufficient warrant and 
justification for this foreword. 




P A T R O N Y M I C A 





early times surnames were un- 
known. Genealogists and antiquar- 
ians now very generally agree that 
they first came into general use 
about the 11th century. 

The general adoption of family 
designation first occurred in Nor- 
mandy, from whence the custom 
spread to all civilized nations. 

The exercise of territorial dominion, extensive 
ownership of soil, military achievements, the sub- 
jugation of a nation, personal peculiarity or char- 
acteristics, the advance of civilization, the organ- 
ization of government, the greater homogeneity of 
the people, and other causes, were all reasons for 
the change from the old and the assumption or im- 
position of new names ; but by far the larger num- 
ber of people owe their patronymic to the 
vocation, profession, occui)ation, or deeds of their 
ancestors— names that have stood the mutations 
of time and come down the centuries to the present 
day. 



8 



Patron YMiCA. 

Among the names of a religious origin are the 
Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, 
Abbotts, Monks, Priors, Beadles, Sextons ; of the 
ruling order and nobility. Kings, Princes, Dukes, 
Knights, Earls, Squires, Pages, Lords, Judges; 
and of the different callings, Arkwright, Baker, 
Barber, Beeman, Brewer, Butcher, Butler, Car- 
penter, Carter, Cartwright, Cooper, Carver, Col- 
lier, Creamer, Draper, Driver, Dyer, Farmer, Fid- 
dler, Fisher, Fowler, Fuller, Gardner, Glazier, 
Goldsmith, Hunter, Iron-monger, Lampman, 
Leadbeater, Mason, Miller, Mossman, Nailer, 
Packer, Painter, Plumber, Porter, Potter, Poul- 
ter. Plowman, Plowright, Naylor, Osier, Saddler, 
Sawyer, Seaman, Shearer, Shearman, Shepard, 
Skinner, Smith, Snowman, Spooner, Tanner, Tin- 
ker, Tucker, Turner, Tyler, Walker, Weaver, 
Wheeler, Warrener, Woodman, Woodward, etc. 

Other family sur-names have been perpetuated 
by the addition of the suffix son, and the elision of 
the possessive 's — Abram's-son, Batter 's-son, 
Dick's-son, Edward 's-son, Harry 's-son, James '- 
son. Jack 's-son, John 's-son. Lamb 's-son, Mat- 
thew 's-son. Patter 's-son, Pattis'-son, Paul 's-son, 
Peter 's-son, Robert 's-son, Richard 's-son, Sam's- 
son, Thom 's-son. Watt 's-son, William 's-son, 
Will 's-son, Wright 's-son, etc. 




Gaelic Surnames. 




GAELIC SURNAMES 





HE suffix son appears in Gaelic 
names in the form of the pre- 
fixes Mac (frequently abbreviated 
to Mc and M'), and 0' — Mac 
meaning son of, and 0' grandson 
or more remote descendant of. 

Years ago, it was written in 
the Hellenic tongue : 

" Per 0' atque Mac, veros cognocis Hibernos; 

His duobus demtis, nullus Hibernus adest. " 

This may be freely translated — 

' ' By Mac and ' you '11 always know 

True Irishmen, they say ; 
But if they lack the O' or Mac, 

No Irishmen are they." 

No nation or people have ever suffered more 
than Ireland and the people of Ireland from the 
incursions, encroachments and depredations of 
others. 

10 



Gaelic Surnames. 

Like the origin of many other nations, the early 
history of Ireland is lost in the mists of Time and 
the mythology and fables of antiquity; but 
whether what we know of the dim ages of the past 
be romance or reality, the poetry of per-fervid 
imagination or the stern realities of fact, enough 
is in evidence to convince unprejudiced investiga- 
tors and thinkers of the coming, during the early 
ages, from Scythia in the East, of Parthalon and 
his followers ; of the Nemedians, a re-inf orcement 
of people from the same country, soon after; the 
Fomorians, an adventurous and warlike people 
from an unknown land; the Firbolgs and the 
Tuatha De Dananns, also from Scythia; the 
Milesians, a contribution to the population from 
Spain; the Cruthneans or Picts, another addition 
from Scythia, and the civilization and learning 
that these contributing factors brought with them, 
and to which they and their descendants and suc- 
cessors added lustre throughout succeeding cen- 
turies. This was known as the Golden Age of Ire- 
land, an age when this favored land was deserved- 
ly called the " School-house of Europe,'' and the 
'' Island of Saints and Scholars," by which appel- 
lations it was known for many centuries. 

In the ninth century began the terrible invasions 
and wars which did the work of devastation, de- 
struction and degradation that has continued 
down to the present time. 

The incursions and wars of the Danes and Nor- 
wegians began in the ninth and were continued 
during the tenth and eleventh centuries, followed 
by those of the Normans in the twelfth century, 
and of the so-called Anglo-Saxons soon after. 

The brutal and barbarous robberies of the peo- 
ple of their birthright by the latter, and the be- 
ll 



Gaelic Surnames. 

stowal of their lands upon their inveterate and 
cruel enemies, the descendants of many of whom 
still retain them in their possession, is a tear-dim- 
med chajDter in the annals of Ireland. But these 
cruel barbarians were not content with this, but 
must needs destroy the literature of the country, 
vast quantities of which they gathered and gave to 
the devouring flames. This they cruellyemphasized 
when they still further robbed and wronged the peo- 
ple by confiscating and destroying their cathedrals, 
churches, schools, and eleemosynary institutions, 
and by making it a capital offense to educate their 
children, and a penal offense to teach them the lan^ 
guage of their parents and ancestors. 

Before the brutal and deplorable wholesale and 
general destruction of the literature of Ireland by 
England, large quantities of valuable manuscripts 
in Gaelic had been garnered by the leading librar- 
ies and educational institutions of continental 
Europe where they are today accorded prominent 
place beside their most valuable and highly prized 
literary treasures. But literature appealed not to 
brutal Englishmen, and the literary world and civ- 
ilization have been the losers. 

Webb, in his ''Analysis of the Antiquities of Ire- 
land," says: '' It was until the time of King 
James I, the object of Government to discover and 
destroy all remains of the literature of the Irish, 
in order to more fully eradicate from their minds 
every trace of their ancient independence." 

To still further de-nationalize and exterminate 
the people of Ireland, they were robbed of their 
lands and homes which were given over to their 
enemies on such conditions that the original and 
lawful owners might never again acquire posses- 
sion of them. It is stipulated in the conditions for 

12 



Gaelic Surnames. 

the Plantation of Ulster, Article 7, that: *'The 
said Undertakers, their Heirs and Assigns, shall 
not alien or demise their Portions, or any Part 
thereof, to meer Irish. And to that end a Proviso 
shall be inserted in their Letters Patent. ' ' 

This and other similar and worse enactments 
prompted some of the Irish people to change their 
names, or to so modify them that they would not 
be suspected of being " meer Irish," — and thus 
be enabled to acquire a home and means of liveli- 
hood for themselves and dependent ones which 
they could not do otherwise. 

Long years before the Plantation of Ulster 
great efforts were made by the English to rob the 
people of Ireland of their old family names to the 
end that they would the more readily lose their 
identity and the traditions of their country which 
they so highly prized and to which they clung with 
so much tenacity. 

In 1465 a law was passed by England (5 Ed. 
IV., Cap. 3), enacting that '' Every Irishman that 
dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen in the 
County of Dublin, Myeth, Uriell and Kildaire . . . 

shall take to him an English surname of 

one town, as Sussex, Chester, Tyrm, Skeyne, 
Cooke, Kinsale ; or colour as white, black, browne ; 
or arts or science, as smith or carpenter ; or office, 
as cooke, butler." 

The foregoing will serve in a measure to ex- 
plain many of the difficulties, transformation of 
names, incongruities, and other obstacles con- 
fronting the genealogist who attempts to dis- 
cover the origin of names and trace the pedigrees 
of many surnames now common in Ireland. 



13 



THE SURNAME McALEER. 





man is unworthy his ancestry and 
the name he bears who is indiffer- 
ent to its origin and history; and 
yet he who essays the task of dis- 
covering the origin of his name 
and who first bore it and why, en- 
gages in a work offtimes as un- 
ending as the seasons and as 
elusive as the rainbow. 

' ' This is a subject which involves many curious 
questions of Antiquarian interest, bearing upon 
the language, habits and pursuits of our country- 
men in bygone days. It is one, also, that immed- 
iately concerns every man who feels an honest 
pride in being called by his father's name."* 

He who attempts to discover the origin of 
names and to trace genealogies will in many cases 
encounter disheartening obstacles and chilling in- 
difference. This led Moore to write: '' A pain- 
ful work it is and more than difficult, wherein 
what toyle hath been taken, as no man thinketh, so 
no man believeth, but he that hath made the 
trial." 

Camden states the same fact in fewer words : *'To 
find out the true original of surnames is full of 



* Notes and Queries. VI, 201 



14 



The Surname McAleer. 

difficulty." This being true elsewhere how much 
more difficult the task when undertaken under the 
difficulties confronting the investigator, whether 
residing in Ireland or elsewhere, who attempts to 
trace the names and genealogies of many of the 
Irish people. The cruel persecutions during the 
past centuries, the diabolical attempts to de- 
nationalize and exterminate the people of Ireland, 
and especially the destruction of their records 
and literature, the persistent, and no doubt to 
some extent successful, efforts to force people to 
change their names, and the more cruel and re- 
lentless determination of their enemies to deprive 
them and their children of an education, all rise 
up as an impassable barrier in the thoroughfare 
that leads back to ancient days. 

Viewed and judged from this standpoint it is 
not difficult to realize that the work of tracing 
names and genealogies in Ireland is oftimes very 
disheartening if not a hopeless task. Much of 
ethnological and antiquarian value is irretrievab- 
ly lost and the fragments that remain are largely 
under the guardianship of those not friendly to 
the Irish people, and who still seem anxious to ob- 
literate and blot out everything that would throw 
light on and be creditable to their early civiliza- 
tion. 

Many times in the past I felt constrained to un- 
dertake to trace the origin and signification of the 
surname that I bear, McAleer, and as often relent- 
ed because of the difficulties in the way. 

More recently I returned to the subject when I 
sought out and searched such literature bearing up- 
on Irish genealogy and the origin of Irish names 
as I found available, the results of which are 
given in the following pages. 

15 



The Surname McAleer. 

'Hart in his * ' Irish Pedigrees ; or The Origin 
and Stem of the Irish Nation," Fifth Edition, 
Dublin, 1892, Volume I, page 549, under the cap- 
tion of Heremon Genealogies, says of the name 
MacLeigh: " This surname is derived from the 
Irish * ' Leigh, ' ' a physician, and means ' ' the son 
of the physician. ' ' The name has been moderniz- 
ed McLeigh, McLea, McLeay, McAlea, etc. The 
name is found in the counties Down, Tyrone, and 
also Derry. In Lanigan we find MacLiag (King 
Brian Boru's poet), anglicized McLigh. 

**At the Norman Invasion of Ireland, we had 
an arch-bishop of Armagh named Gilla McLiagh, 
whose name is latinized Gelasius." 

And in a foot-note he further says : ' ' McLea : 
This name is believed to be the modern form of 
McLear, and of McAler. 

" In the graveyard of Lower Langfried, near 
Drumquin, County Tyrone, are tombstones with 
the following inscriptions : On one of them — 
' ' Here lieth the body of Edmund McLear who de- 
parted this life February 16 ano Dom 1721, aged 
68." And on the other tombstone: '' Here lyeth 
the body of Neckel McAler, who died the 11th of 
April ano Dom 1708, aged 22 years." 

And on page 230, same Edition and Volume, he 
gives " sea " as the meaning of " lear." 

A valued Norwegian friend, a graduate of a 
university in Norway, who has devoted consider- 
able time to genealogical study and to tracing the 
origin of names, assures me that the name Mc- 
Aleer is of Norse origin, and that it is still fre- 
quently encountered in Norway as Lier. He says 
it comes from La, a sloping grassy hillside at the 
foot of a mountain, a dale, a glen, the plural of 
which is Ler, pronounced Leer. This name if 

16 



The Surname McAleer. 

transplanted to Ireland during the time of the Dan- 
ish and Norwegian invasions would be Hibernici- 
zed by the addition of the prefix Mac and thus be- 
come the MacLeer and MacAleer of the present 
time. It is found in England and Scotland angli- 
cized as Leigh, Lea, Lee, and Leeson — the suffix 
son in England corresponding to the Celtic prefix 
Mac in Ireland. 

Color and support is lent to the contention of 
my Norwegian friend by Rev. Patrick Wolfe, in 
his " Irish Names and Surnames," Dublin, M. H. 
Gill and Son, 1906. He says on page 3 : * ' Owing 
to inter-marriage, many Danish and Norse names 
passed into Irish families during the ninth, tenth 
and eleventh centuries, and some of them became 
very popular. A few still survive as Christian 
names, and they have left us several important 
surnames. ' ' 

Dr. MacDermott, in his annotations to the An- 
nals of the Four Masters, states : ' ' Many fami- 
lies of Danish origin took Irish surnames, prefix- 
ing 0' and Mac, so that their descent cannot now 
be ascertained, and several of their Chiefs took 
Irish Christian names, particularly that of 
Patrick in honor of the patron saint of Ireland. ' ' 

The work above quoted further says : * ' In the 
same manner — that is, through inter-marriage — 
Norman and English names became current in 
Irish families during the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries. Though not very numerous, 
they have now almost entirely supplanted the old 
Gaelic names. ' ' 

In relation to "Native Irish Surnames " the 
same publication on pages 9 and 10 says : ' ' Irish 
surnames came into use gradually from the 
middle of the tenth to the end of the thirteenth 

17 



The Surname McAleer. 

century, and were formed from the genitive case 
of the names of ancestors who flourished within 
that period, by prefixing 0' (sometimes written 
Ua) or Mac (sometimes Mag). 

" Surnames were not formed from the real 
name of the ancestor, but from some other desig- 
nation, as rank, trade, occupation, etc. 

" Many of the Old English, Welsh and Norman 
families assumed surnames after the Irish fash- 
ion by prefixing Mac to the names, or other desig- 
nation, of their ancestors. More families of this 
class, however, retained their original surname in 
an hibernicized form. Some surnames of Nor- 
man origin prefix De representing the Norman- 
French De and Le, as De Burg, De Leir, Le Poer. 

"0' literally signifies a grandson, and Mac a 
son ; but in the wider sense which they have ac- 
quired in surnames, both now mean any male de- 
scendant. The onlv difference between a surname 
commencing with Mac and one commencing with 
O ' is that the former was taken from the name of 
the father and the latter from the grandfather or 
the first person who bore the surname. Mac sur- 
names are, generally speaking, of later formation 
than 0' surnames." 

This publication gives, on page 73, Mac Giolla 
Uidhir as the Irish form of MacAleer. 

Barber in his " British Family Names," second 
edition, London, 1903, makes no mention of Mac- 
leare, this old name in England, but gives the de- 
rivation of the patronymic Lear as from the Bel- 
gian Liero, or the Norman Li/re, the German 
Liehr, or the Danish Lier. 

The following extract bearing upon the subject 
is taken from the comprehensive and illuminating 
article on Celtic Literature in the Encyclopaedia 

18 



The Surname McAleer. 

'Britannica, to which it was contributed by W. K. 
Sullivan, President of Queen's College, Cork: 

'' Mediaeval Irish and Welsh manuscripts con- 
tain an extensive body of legendary ethnology, 
which in the case of the Irish legends has been 
even fitted with a complete chronology. Setting 
aside the more fabulous parts of the Irish legends 
which refer to colonists who arrived a short time 
after the deluge, we find four successive colonies 
mentioned in the following order: — Nemedians, 
Firbolgs, Tuatha-De-Dananns, and Milesians. 
The Nemedians are said to have occupied the 
country during only two hundred years, when the 
greater part of them went away in three separate 
bodies, owing to the harassing attacks made upon 
them, and their final overthrow, by a people who 
appear in Irish legends as sea-rovers, called Fo- 
morians. One body took refuge in Britain, an- 
other went to Thrace, and the third into the north 
of Europe. The Thracian party became the an- 
cestors of the second colonizing race, the Firbolgs. 
The Nemedians who went to the north of Europe 
appear afterwards as the Tuatha De Danann; 
those who went to Britain became the Britons. 
According to this legend three of the early tribes 
which peopled Ireland were of the same race with 
the Britons. The fourth and latest of the Irish 
races, the Milesians, or followers of Miled, are al- 
so connected with the others in the genealogies to 
be found in Irish manuscripts, but the relation- 
ship is much more distant than that which is rep- 
resented to have existed between the other races. 
All Irish accounts of the early races inhabiting 
Ireland agree in bringing Miled from the north of 
Spain ; but in the early times when the Irish ethnic 
stories received their present shape, the majority 

19 



The Surname McAleer. 

of people, not alone in Ireland, but everywhere, 
had very imperfect notions of geography, and of- 
ten applied the few geographical names which had 
reached their ears by pure hazard, and generally 
without having more than the vaguest notions of 
the places they referred to. 

Of all the traditions of this class those only 
seem to possess real importance which relate to 
the mysterious people called the Tuatha De 
Danann. 

This name appears to mean the tribes of De and 
Ana; and as De is God, and Ana is called the 
mother of the Irish gods, these supposed invading 
tribes are only the deities in a system of mytholo- 
gy which has yet to be unravelled. 

As some of those deities occupy a place in Cel- 
tic romance, we shall venture to say a few words 
about some of them, though at the risk of making 
one out of several distinct deities, and of making 
several out of one. 

One of the chief deities of the Irish pantheon 
was Ogma, surnamed Griainaincch, '' of the sun- 
like face," son of Eladan, or Elathan, that is of 
knowledge. Ogma had other appellatives, the 
most important being Dagda, Delbaith Dana or 
Tuirenn Bicrenn, and Cermait " of the honey- 
mouth," though the last sometimes appears as 
the son of Dagda. Under the last appellative his 
wife is Ana, the mother of the gods, of the Mor 
Rigu, or Mor Rigan also known by the appella- 
tives of Badb and Macha. As the latter, who was 
mother of Aed (fire), who is probably the Aed 
Mawr of Welsh legends, father of Prydain, the 
first legendary king of Britain, whence the name 
Ynys Prydain, or the Island of Prydain, and the 

20 



The Surname McAleer. 

real origin of the mythical Hu of the mediaeval 
bards. 

The dagda had another son, whose name was 
Aengus, or the MacOg, a celebrated personage of 
early Irish legend, and an equally celebrated 
daughter, Brigit, the goddess of wisdom and judg- 
ment. Under the appellative of Delbaith Dana or 
Tuirenn Bicrenn (who is represented as the son 
of Ogma, and not that personage himself), Ogma 
has two wives, Ana under that name, and of her 
other two appellatives, and Emmas, who is rep- 
resented as the mother of the first-named wife^ 
Ana under her various names, is, therefore, at 
once the daughter and wife of Delbaith. Ana's 
sons by Delbaith are Brian, luchair, and luchar- 
ba, who are called the gods of Ana, and hence she 
is called the mother of the gods. 

They are the same as the sons of Cermait '* of 
the honey-mouth, ' ' already mentioned as being an 
appellative of Ogma himself, or his son under that 
of the Dagda. 

These sons are Seithor or MacCuill, a sea-god, 
Teithoir or MacCecht, the ruler of the sky and 
heavenly bodies, to whom the plough was sacred, 
and Ceithor or MacGreine (son of the earth), the 
god of the earth. Their mother was the Etain of 
Irish legend ; and as she was the wife of Ogma un- 
der that name, it proves that Cermait " of the 
honey-mouth " was only an appellative for the 
latter, and not his son, under the appellative Dag- 
da. The wives of the three gods above mentioned 
were Banba, Fotla, and Eire, names under which 
Ireland was personified. Elcmair was either a 
son of Ogma as Delbaith, or more probably his 
brother, and was the same as Tadc Mor, Orbsen^ 
and Ler (Leer) the sea. Under the last named 

21 



The Surname McAleer. 

appellative he was god of the sea, and is especial- 
ly interesting for in him we have the original of 
Shakespeare's King Lear, and the father of Man- 
andan of Irish and Welsh romance. It is probable 
that Ler was the same as MacCuill, the sea-god 
above mentioned. 

There was also a god of war, Neit (battle), 
whose son Eserg (slaughter) was the father of 
Diancecht (Dia na-cecht), the gods of the powers 
(of healing), of Goibniu, the smith, and of other 
impersonations of the Arts. The god of healing 
had a son Cian or Conn (valour), who is also 
known under other appellatives, such as Scalbalb, 
and is sometimes confounded with his wife Eth- 
lenn or Ethne (skill). His daughters were Airm- 
ed, the goddess of physic, and Etain, the wife of 
Ogma, above mentioned. Ethlenn's son Lug is a 
prominent figure in Celtic romance, and was 
known also by the names of Lug Lamfada, or Lug 
" the long- armed," En, and the Sab Ildanach, or 
pillar of many arts. Abhcan, the grandson of 
Ethlen and Conn, was god of music. Conn, under 
his appellative of Scalbalb, is also made one of 
the sons of Echaid Garb, son of Breas (power), 
personages who fill prominent parts in Irish 
story. 

Among the other sons of Echaid we must men- 
tion Badb Derg, the chief of the Side of Munster, 
and Uillind Fa^bar Derg, who kills Manandan 
MacLir in legend. The deities related to Conn or 
Cian, husband of Ethlenn, and his son Lug are 
called the Aes Trebair while those related to the 
Dagda or Ogma are the Aes Side of story." 

'' The two tribes appear in contention or war- 
fare, but, nevertheless, occasionally associated 
and intermarry, like the Teutonic Vanir and 

22 



The Surname McAleee. 

Aesir ; thus Etain, the daughter of the god of 
healing, was the wife of the Dagda, and Cermait 
' ' of the honey-mouth ' ' ; and Fea and Nemand, 
the goddess of war, the wives of Neit or Neid, the 
god of war, were the daughters of Elcmair (great 
evil) known as Ler (Leer)." 



* ' The mythological tales all relate to the inhab- 
itants of the Side or Celtic Elysium, whose chiefs 
were the mythical Tuatha De Danann leaders, and 
who form, as we have pointed out above, an exten- 
sive pantheon. 

''Among those who figure in the tales are 
Etain, Ler, Manandan his son, the Dagda, Tui- 
renn Bicrenn or Delbaith and his three sons and 

Lug MacEithlenn In some of the 

stories of Curoi MacDaire, the Munster King, 
Conaire Mor, the paramount king of Ireland, 
Manandan MacLir and his wife Fans, and many 
other personages of Celtic mythology come in." 

And of the poetry and prose writing of the 13th 
century, called Mabinogian, and contained in the 
Red Book, among others he mentions the tale of 

Branwen, daughter of Llyr " (Lear), and 

Manawyddan, the son of Llyr. ' ' Of these he 
says : — 

*' "We have called the second group Irish rom- 
ances, not only because the action of some of them 
is placed occasionally in Ireland, and some of the 
actors have been distinctly stated to have been 
Irishmen, but because they are unmistakably 
relics of the period of the occupations of the Coast 
of Wales by the Gyddel or Irish. The group of 
four romances form a cycle of legends, and are the 

23 



i i 
i i 



The Surname McAleer. 

only ones called Mabinogion in the manuscript 
from which thev have been taken. In the first 
tale the principal characters are Pwyll, prince of 
Dyfed, and Arawn, king of Annwn or Annwyvn; 
in the second Bran and Manawyddan the sons, 
and Branwen the daughter, of Llyr, and 
Matholwch, king of Ireland; in the third Man- 
awyddan, son of Llyr, and Pryderi, son of Pwyll ; 
and in the fourth, Math, son of Mathonwy, king of 
Arvon and Mona, Gwydyon ap Don and Arianrod 
his sister, and Llew Llaw Gyffes and Dylan eil 
Ton, the sons of Arianrod. ' ' 

" These personages are mentioned in several of 
the poems attributed to Taliessin, in whose reput- 
ed works curiously enough the relics of the 
ancient mythology are chiefly found. In these 
tales and poems we have undoubtedly the relics of 
the ancient Irish mythology of the Tuatha De 
Danann, sometimes mixed with the later Arthur- 
ian myths. The Caer Sidi is the Sid of Irish myth- 
ology, the residence of the gods of the Aes Side. 
The seven other Caers or residences mentioned in 
the poem on the spoils of Annwn are the various 
Side of the immortals. Llyr is the Irish sea-god 
Ler, and was called Llyr Llediaith, or the half- 
tongued, implying that he spoke a language only 
partially intelligible to the people of the country. 
Brian, the son of Llyr, is the Irish Bran MacAl- 
lait, Allat being one of the names of Ler. This 
Bran is probably the name of Brian, son of Tui- 
renn, though according to the Irish genealogies, 
Brian would be the nephew of Ler. Manawyddan 
ap Llyr is clearly the Manandan or Manannan 
Mac Lir of Irish mythology. In one derivation of 
his name, if correct, we have a most important 

24 



The Surname McAleer. 

link in these romances. According to this etymo- 
logy, Manannan comes from Man, lord, and An- 
man, of the foamy sea, Ler, his father's name, 
meaning also the sea. In Annan we would have 
the Annwn of the poems, and of the story of 
Pwyll, and commonly identified with hell, but 
really corresponding to the Tir Tairngire or Ely- 
sium of the Irish. ' ' 

In a previous part of the article we have made 
the Dagda the same as Delbaith Dan or Tuirenn 
the father of Ler, the sea, as well as of Aed, fire. 
Rhiannon, daughter of Heveydd Hen, and wife of 
Pwyll, and afterward of Manawyddan, is perhaps 
also to be connected with Ana and Annwn. Again, 
the C»r Sidi above mentioned, where neither dis- 
ease nor old age affects any one, is called the 
prison of Gweir in one of the poems. This Gweir 
we have no doubt, represents Haiar, son of Man- 
andan MacLir, the Atropos who cut the thread of 
life of Irish mythology. ' ' 



" There are several Dons or Donns in Irish 
romance :~the chief of the Munster fairies, or 
people of the Side, was Donn Firinne of Cnoc 
Firinne, now Knockfierna, in the west of the 
County of Limerick ; Donn Dumhach, or Donn of 
the sandbank at the mouth of the Eidneach near 
Ennistymon, in the County of Cork, were also 
chiefs of Side. These examples show that Don 
the father of Gwydyon, may be connected with the 
Aes Side. Manandan MacLir had a son who was 
Ech-DonMor, or the great Ech-Don, who is prob- 
ably the Donn mentioned in the Fennian Agal- 
lamh na Senorach, or Dialogue of the Sages, as 
having been slain by a certain Derg Dianscothach 



25 



Thh Suename McAleer. 

in the war between Ilbhreach of the Sid of Eas 
Euadh and Ler of Sid Finnachaidh. " 

'* Before leaving these curious tales, it will be 
better to discuss one of the mixed romances, the 
story of Kilhwch and Olwen. By mixed romance 
we mean one in which two distinct streams of leg- 
ends have mingled. The one just mentioned be- 
longed originally to the same class of legends as 
the four Mabinogion we have been discussing, but 
it got mixed up with the Arthurian romance. 
Kilhwch asks for wife Olwen, the daughter of 
Yspaddaden Penkawr, who imposes upon him a 
number of tasks before he would give him his 
daughter, the final one being to fetch the comb and 
scissors which were between the ears of the Twrch 
Trwyth. All of these he effects through the aid of 
his cousin Arthur. Among the personages men- 
tioned are Amaethon, son of Don, who is repre- 
sented as a great husbandman, and Govannon, son 
of Don, a smith. Among the actors are Gwyther, 
the son of Greidawl, who is bethrothed to Creid- 
dylad, daughter of Lludd Llaw Ereint, that is 
Cordelia, daughter of Lear, Gwen Ap Nudd, how- 
ever, carries off Creiddylad, but Arthur makes 
peace between them, the condition being that the 
maiden should be restored to her father's house, 
and Gwen and Gyther should fight for the yellow- 
haired maiden on the first of May each year. This 
very curious tale is altogether based on Irish 
mythology. ' ' 



'' Celtic literature, although it has no master- 
piece of its own to point to, has exercised a con- 
siderable amount of influence on the creations of 
modern European literature. This influence was 



26 



The Surname McAleer. 

exerted by several distinct currents of legends, 
the first is that of the Aes Side and those of 
Queen Mebd or Mab and the heroic period ; of 
these the existing Irish legends, and the modified 
form of them in the Welsh Mabinogion, give us 
one type. In Britain the first current, modified 
and mixed with foreign and especially Teutonic 
elements, has gone on altering, growing, and de- 
caying until the traces of its origin are almost un- 
recognizable. It is from this source that much of 
our fairy mythology is derived, and that Chaucer 
and Spencer obtained materials. To it may also 
be traced the legends which formed the ground- 
work of Shakespeare's immediate sources for 
King Lear and Midsummer Night's Dream." 



Whether this Manannan MacLir, son of the sea, 
or great navigator, as is claimed, be the '* pale, 
wan or dun one,"— the progenitor of the clan, 
sept or family from which have descended the Mc- 
Aleers, or whether they had other origin, certain 
it is that the headquarters and home of this clan, 
sept, or family, during centuries past, was and is 
in the County Tyrone, Ireland, where many of 
them still reside. 

While the name Lear, Macleare, MacLeer, or 
McAleer is given no prominent place in the pages 
of history, as kings or military heroes, neither 
will it be found coupled with anything base or dis- 
honorable. The great majority of people bearing 
this name have ever been known and appreciated 
for their integrity, untiring constancy, loyalty, 
and devotion to principle and duty in the more 
quiet walks of life, and this is affirmed and em- 

27 



The Surname McAleer. 

phasized by ancient family crests and coats-of- 
arms that have been handed down from bygone 
centuries, the motto on one of which is " Mea 
Gloria Fides," and on another " Clarus ah 

Ortu." 

Their loyalty to kith and kin and their fidelity 
to principle closed the door to preferment in their 
native land ; but their ability and worth have won 
for them station and place in the land of the 
stranger. 

During the very early days of the United 
States, President George Washington selected 
Tobias Lear for his private Secretary. He re- 
mained in this delicate and confidential station 
until the death of Washington, and the records 
show that his employer appreciated and admired 
him, and that no man stood in closer or more con- 
fidential relations with him. 

In very recent times an imaided emigrant boy 
of a few years before, Henry McAleer, won place 
and distinction in the business and public life of 
Workington, the city of his adoption in the north- 
western part of England, where he was finally 
called to occupy the Mayor's Chair, the highest 
civic distinction, which he filled with such signal 
ability as to command the approbation and praise 
of all classes and conditions. 

Contemporary therewith, another, Owen Mc- 
Aleer, filled the Mayor's Chair in the city of Los 
Angeles, California ; and but a short time previ- 
ously, another bearing this name was a member of 
the United States Congress from the State of 
Pennsylvania, an office that he filled with credit to 
himself and honor to his constituents. These Mc- 
Aleers trace back to the County Tyrone, Ireland. 

28 



The Sukname McAleer. 

Many other examples could be given, did space 
permit. 

The name of Ler or Lir, from which it is said 
comes the present hibernicized surname McAleer, 
has had no inconsiderable place in the domain of 
letters, bemg prominent in the early mythological 
and legendary literature of Ireland, being immor- 
talized by the genius of Shakespeare in his '^King 
Lear," by the pen of the gifted poet Moore in his 
^ feongof Fionnuala," by Robert Dwyer Joyce 
m his Epic, -Deirdre,"by Aubrey DeVere in 
his poem, - The Children of Lir," and by many 
lesser lights in the world of letters. 



My personal investigations and researches hav- 
ing resulted in nothing definite or satisfactory in 
estabhshmg the origin and signification of the 
surname McAleer, I next proceeded to advertise 
in the genealogical columns of various publica- 
tions m different parts of the world, and by per- 
sonal appeal to learned genealogists and antiquar- 
ians, the result of which is herewith appended. 

In answer to my inquiries under date of Novem- 
ber 26, 1904, in The Weekly Scotsman of Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, the following reply appeared in 
its columns : 

THE AVEEKLY SCOTSMAN, 

EDINBURGH, DECEMBER 24, 1904. 

THE NAME McALEER. 
''The name M'Aleer inquired for on 26th Novem- 
ber by an American correspondent is seldom 
found m that form in Scotland. It appears to be 

29 



The Surname McAleer. 

the same as Macliver, a name sometimes found in 
Islay and other parts of Argyll, which means 
** Son of the Grinder." When the name of 
M'Gregor was forbidden by Act of Parliament, it 
is said that one of that hunted clan made his way 
into Argyllshire, and, being asked his name, an- 
swered—'' 'S liobhair mi '" (I am a Grinder). He 
would probably be an adept at sharpening swords, 
and his posterity were known as " MacLiobhair" 
or Macliver. The famous soldier, Sir Colin Camp- 
bell was a Macliver, Campbell being only his 
mother's name. A war official made the error 
when Sir Colin joined the army and it was never 

rectified. 

Alexander Stewart." 

Similar inquiries which appeared in the geneal- 
ogical columns of The Pilot, Boston, Mass., elicit- 
ed the following reply : 

THE PILOT. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY 4, 1905. 



THE NAME McALEER. 

(a.) " When and where did the name McAleer 
originate t 

(b.) From what is the name derived? and what 
does it signify? 

(c.) Are there any genealogical records where 
it appears, and if so where may they be consulted! 

(d.) If there are no such records are there 
any genealogical society or societies, or antiquar- 
ian societies, that can probably furnish such infor- 
mation? 

30 



The Surname McAleer. 

(e.) The address or addresses of same." 
This name does not appear in this form in any 
book of reference at hand, and it seems probable 
that It IS a corruption. It is not many years since 
spelhng became a common accomplishment, and 
the spelhng of family names even now is caprici- 
ous The Archbishop of Tuam, for instance, was 
the first to write " MacHale." Consequently, it 
would be well to search for all names that could 
possibly be transformed to McAleer; that is all 
including the initial sound of ''m", followed by 
'*c," ''k," or a hard ''g," succeeded by an ''1" or 
a double ''1", and a long "e", an ''ea" or a '^y". 
The "A" may have been an I, an ''Ea" or an 
*'Ee" originally. 

There are genealogical societies in almost all 
the older large cities of the United States. The 
address of each is its name and the name of its 
city, but it is doubtful if any of them could furnish 
much information beyond what is given here. If, 
by old letters or records, the correspondent can 
connect the name with any having a sunilar pro- 
nunciation, he may consider himself on the right 
track. 

McAleer appears in the list of parish priests in 

Ireland, and there are two English Maclears in 

Whos Who " for 1901, but none in the 1905 

issue." 

Similar inquiries were addressed to The Week- 
ly Freeman, Dublin, Ireland, and the following re- 
plies appeared in its columns under their respec- 
tive dates : 



31 



\ 



The Sukname McAleer. 
THE WEEKLY FREEMAN. 



Dublin: Saturday, December 24, 1904. 



"MacAleer. ' ' The name MacAleer does not occur 
in the "Annals of the Four Masters" or the ''An- 
nals of Ulster;" but it is quite evident that the 
proper form of the name is MacLir, which would be 
pronouncedas if written MacAleer. The tendency to 
make two syllables out of one is very common in 
the Irish language by speakers of it in every 
part of Ireland ; for instance reA»)-tJeAi), an old 
woman, is generally pronounced in three syllables 
instead of two, as if it were written r^^nAMeAX] ; 
and the phrase aij njAic , very good, is also gen- 
erally pronounced in three syllables as if written 

There seems hardly any doubt that StJActeAit 
and 2t)AC Lfri (MacAleer and MacLir) are the same 
name, for the accented '4" in Lir would be pro- 
nounced like "ee." Mananan MacLir figures prom- 
inently in Ancient Irish romance. He is reported to 
have been a great navigator and something of a 
pirate, who owned the Isle of Man, or lived in it, 
in the first century of the Christian era. It is said 
that the Isle of Man is called after him. MacLir 
means " son of the sea,"— lir being the genitive of 
lear, the sea. 



32 



The Surname McAleer. 
THE WEEKLY FREEMAN. 



Dublin: Saturday, April 15, 1905. 



*' M'Aleer and M'Clure." Some weeks ago a 
correspondent wrote to the Weekly Freeman to 
find out the original form of the name MacAleer. 
Researches were made, and some probable ancient 
forms of the name were given ; but since then fur- 
ther researches in ancient annals and unpublished 
documents have shown a more trustworthy origin 
of the names MacAleer and MacClure than was 
given at first. Both names seem with a probabil- 
ity amounting almost to a certainty, to be derived 
from the same source, and to be the same name, 
the original form of which was 2t)AC Sl^^^-^ ^1*lf 
(MacGille Uidhir), meaning the son of a servant, 
disciple, or follower of the pale or dun one.* ' Gille, " 
now generally spelt " Giolla," means a servant, 
follower, or imitator, and is a very common prefix 
to Irish personal names, and often appearing in 
such shortened forms as " Gill " and " Kill," as 
in the names Gillespie, Kilmurray, etc. '' Uidhir " 
is the genitive singular masculine of the adjective 
** odhar," meaning pale or dun, man or person be- 
ing understood. That which gives the greatest 
probability that MacGille Uidhir is the correct and 
ancient form of the names MacAleer and Mac 
Clure, is the fact that it is found in the most im- 
portant and trustworthy of Irish annals — namely, 
the Annals of the Four Masters and the Annals of 
Ulster; while the modern forms of the name, 
MacAleer and MacClure, are not found in them, 
or in anj'- other annals that have indexes of their 
contents attached to them. MacGille Uidhir seems 
to be also the same, or nearly the same, name as 

33 



The Surname McAleer. 

MacGuire, McGuire, or, as sometimes spelled, 
Maguire, for the original form of it, Mac Uidhir[ 
IS found in MacFirbis's unpublished book of 
genealogies. The change that Irish surnames 
begmnmg with the prefix Gille have undergone 
smce they became Anglicised, are extraordinary. 
Mac Gille Arraith, has become Mac Allary, Mac 
Gille Righ has become Mac Elroy; Mac Gille losa 
has become Mac Leese; Mac Gille Maire has be- 
come Gillmore, etc., etc. Mac Gille Uidhir is not 
only an ancient name, but also an illustrious one, 
for Eachdunn Mac Gille Uidhir was the name of 
the highest church dignitary in Ireland in the thir- 
teenth century ; he was Archbishop of Armagh, 
and died in Rome in the year 1216. His death is 
recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters and 
m the Annals of Ulster. He must have been a pre- 
late of great ability and in great esteem, for he at- 
tended the Council of Lateran in Rome in the year 
1215, and was a member of it." 

The following is from a well known Irish 
scholar, antiquary, author, and contributor to the 
genealogical columns of many papers : 

Washington, D. C, November 18, 1896. 
Dr. George McAleer, 

Dear Sir :— Since I got your letter this morning I 
have examined all the works on Irish Genealogy 
now available, hoping to be able to give a satisfac- 
tory answer to your inquiry as to the origin and 
derivation of your name. But the only work in 
which I found the name McAleer mentioned was in 
the "Appendix to the Annual Report of the Reg- 
istrar General of Marriages, Birth, and Deaths in 
Ireland." In this work there is a special report 

34 



The Surname McAleer. 

on surnames in Ireland in which there is a table of 
the number of births for the year, of family 
names, together with the Province and counties in 
which they were principally found. 

In this list I found that in all Ireland there were 
17 McAleers born, of which 13 were credited to the 
County Tyrone. That statement, taken in con- 
nection with the fact of your parents being from 
Tyrone clearly points out the ancient tribe-land of 

your race. 

Now, in turning to the Topographical Appendix 
in John O'Mahony's Translation of Keating 's 
History of Ireland we find that : 

" Tir Eogain (Tyrone) obtained its name from 
Eogan or Owen, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages 
who conquered this territory in the beginning of 
the fifth century, and hence its name Tir Eogain, 
or the country of Owen, afterwards anglicised in- 
to Tiroen or Tyrone. 

The descendants of Eogan were the most cele- 
brated of all the Milesian clans ; of them a great 
many were Kings of Ulster and sixteen were mon- 
archs of Ireland." 

Among the numerous septs and sub-septs who 
derive their descent from Eogan, I find about 
forty mentioned by name, and although 
*' McAleer " is not among them, owing possibly 
to not being as conspicuous as the more powerful 
septs, that fact does not militate against their 
claiming kinship with O'Neill. 

I find, moreover, mention made of the territory 
of Ui Laoghaire of Lough Lir in Tyrone. But 
Lough Lir most probably derived its name from 
some prehistoric individual such as the Lir men- 
tioned by Moore— or the reputed father of Man- 

35 



The Surname McAleer. 

nanan Mac Lir— one of the Sea-gods of Pagan Ire- 
land. 

Whatever may have been the extent of the 
MacAleer's tribal territory in ancient times, it is 
evident that the clan clung tenaciously to the old 
spot where there is still more of them located 
among the '' Green Hills of Tyrone " than in all 
the rest of Ireland together. 

I wish it was in my power to throw more light 
on the origin of your family name, but that its 
parent stock was the Clan Niall I have no doubt 
whatever. 

I remain, dear sir, 

Sincerely yours, 

Michael Cavanagh. 

Goshen, Larbert, 

Scotland, 15th May, 1905. 
Dr. George McAleer, 

Dear Sir :— I hope my delay in answering you 
will be excused. After some inquiry I began to 
think it was of no use looking for traces of 
McAleer in Scotland, so I approached Mr. E. E. 
Fournier, of the Celtic Association of Ireland, as 
a likely person to help, and his notes, which I send 
you entire, may, I think, convince us that I was 
right. 

County Tyrone in the Province of Ulster, Ire- 
land, appears to be the cradle of the McAleers, 
and Mr. Fournier shows how they stand in num- 
bers in comparison with other names there. 

It only remains for me to try to explain how 
your progenitor might have emigrated from Scot- 
land. It might be thus. In the 17th and 18th cen- 
turies, when this country was in an unsettled 

36 



The Surname McAleer. 

state, a great many North of Ireland men came 
over to the Highlands of Scotland to assist the 
waning cause of the Stuart Sovereigns, and some 
of them settled down there. After the last rising 
in Scotland in 1745-46 was suppressed the High- 
land Chiefs found there was no further use for 
their Clanmen, and that large sheep farms paid 
better. Whole glens and districts were depopulat- 
ed of the smaller tenantry, who from that time till 
the middle of the 19th century, were forced to 
leave their native land in ship loads for Canada 
and the States, and who knows but a McAleer hap- 
pened thus to be among the exiles who left the 
"lone shieling on the misty Island!" That is 
the only theory I can offer. 

Trusting Mr. Fournier's notes will interest you, 

I am, dear sir, 

Yours very sincerely, 
H. CAUDER STEWART. 

Further correspondence was continued with Mr. 
Stewart and Mr. Fournier, the result of which is 
practically embodied in a later letter received 
from Mr. Fournier, and is as follows : 

Celtic Association, 
Dublin, Ireland, June 24, 1905. 
Dear Dr. McAleer : — 

I am glad my search concerning your name has 
been a source of pleasure to you. I feel that there 
is still a great deal to be found out about it, and I 
shall continue to study it. Your Scottish friend's 
information is interesting, but faulty in several 

particulars. 

Lear and Leary are entirely different names. I 
know of no precedent for dropping the final sylla- 
ble. There is '' Hart " (O'h-Airt) and '' Harty " 

37 



The Surname McAleer. 

(O'Carrthaigh), but as you see their origin is en- 
tirely different. 

Manannan MacAleer is theGcBlic sea-god. Leery 
is the well known Laoghaire, King of Tara. 

Your country Irishman is sadly astray about 
Gallagher. The original form of that is Gallchob- 
hair, as most school-children hereabout know. The 
''A" in 5-our name is distinctive, and must be ac- 
counted for. No simple " Leer " will do; there is 
a reason for everything, and the ''A" can only be 
the article an elided or the remnant of Giolla. 

The Mana form of MacLear would be Clear. I 
must look it up in the '' Moore's Mana Names," 
but it is not your name. Meanwhile, I send you 
the Congress number of our Magazine, " Celtia." 

Yours sincerelv, 

E. E. Fournier. 

P.S. My friend, Mr. T. O'Neill Russell, de- 
rives your name from Mac Giolla Uidhir making 
it synonymous with Maguire. This is not impossi- 
ble. I give you the following tracing of the name 
and suggestions: 

1. Origin, Meaning and spelling. 

Origin is obscure owing to its rarity. The name 
does not occur in O'Heeran and O'Doogan's To- 
pography. No information in 'Hart's '* Irish 
Pedigrees." Mr. J. H. Lloyd suggests MacGiolla 
Ire, Ir being a son of Milesius. But this is not 
corroborated, nor likely, since the final e would not 
be dropped. 

In the '' Annals of the Four Masters " I find 
the following: 

A. D. 1249, Andreas MacGillager, successor of 
Fechin, died. He was an abbott of Cong, County 

38 



The Surname McAleer. 

Mayo. This is the most probable derivation: 
MacGilla Ger, or in modern Irish spelling Mac 
Giolla Gheir, the son of a servant or disciple of 
St. Ger, pronounced MacGilly Yare. 

2. It is a name by itself, and has no branches 
or derivations. See Matheson's Varieties and 
Synonyms of Surnames and Christian names in 
Ireland, 1890. Eyre and Spottiswoode, Is. 2d.) 

3. Almost exclusively in County Tyrone, not- 
ably in Omagh, Fintona, Pomeroy, and Newtown- 
Stewart, among all classes. Matheson (Special 
Report on Surnames in Ireland, 1894. Eyre and 
Spottiswoode, 7 1-2 d.) records its occurrence in 
the Birth Returns of Ireland for 1900, 17 times ; 16 
of these being in Ulster (13 of which in Tyrone, 
and 1 in Leinster). The more prevalent names in 
Tyrone range from Quinn (40) through Mullen, 
Kelley, Donnelly, Gallagher, MacKenna, Camp- 
bell, Hughes, Wilson, McLaughlun, O'Neill, Do- 
herty, and Smith, to Hamilton (23 entries). 

4. It appears to be a purely Irish name without 
a clear Scottish equivalent. I am not aware of any 
special historical associations connected with the 
name. 

E. E. FOURNIER. 

Celtic Association, 
Dublin, 10th May, 1905. 



Darrow, Queens County, Ireland, 

July 3, 1906. 
Dear Sir: — 

Mac and ' are not identical in meaning. Mac 
means son of ; ' means grandson or more remote 
descendant of. 

39 



The Surname McAleer. 

Those prefixes came into use in Ireland in the 
reign of King Brian Boru, who was slain at the 
Battle of Clontarf, Dublin, in 1014. King Brian 
Boru issued an edict that his subjects should 
adopt a family name ; and in submission to this 
edict some called themselves Mac so-and-so, from 
their fathers, others so-and-so from their grand- 
fathers or some other more remote ancestor. 

In Ireland, at least, surnames had their origin 
in the Milesians, to which race Brian Boru and all 
the nobility of Ireland in his time belonged. Sur- 
names were not in use, or at least in anything like 
general use, in Ireland till King Brian Boru's 
time. 

As to the suffix ** son," I am unable to say when 
it began to be used ; but I should say that there are 
few traces of it previous to the 13th century. 

W. C. Careigan, C. C. 



7 North Strand, 

Dublin, March 8, 1905. 
Dear Sir: — 

As I am the person who wrote the article on the 
name MacAleer in the Weekly Freeman some 
months ago, the Editor has handed me your letter 
of February 17 to answer. I will do everything in 
my power to find out the origin of the name, and 
will write you at length about it in a week or two. 
I dare say that, having made a study of personal 
names for a long time, I may be as competent as 
most to give you the information you require, as I 
know both old and modern Gaelic fairly well. We 
have one of the finest libraries in Europe here in 
Dublin; and I'll search every publication in it to 
give you information about the name. But Celtic 

40 



The Surname McAleee. 

personal names form an obscure subject of re- 
search ; however, I will do all I can. 

Very sincerely yours, 
Dr. George Mc Aleer, T. 'Neill Russell. 

Worcester, Mass., U. S. A. 



37 North Strand, 

Dublin, April 8, 1905. 
Dr. George McAleer, 

Worcester, Mass., U. S. A. 

Dear Sir : — Yours of March 25 just received. I 
think that you shall have to put all ideas of a 
Norse origin of your name out of your head. It is, 
however true, that in all countries tracing the 
origin of names, both of persons and places, is 
generally a difficult, and often a never-ending-in- 
positive-truth task. 

Having searched all the genealogies and annals 
that are known to exist, such as the Annals of the 
Four Masters, the Annals of Ulster, the Annals of 
Loch Ce, Mac Firbis's Genealogies, and the fifty 
odd pages of Annals and Genealogies in the Book 
of Leinster, without much of any profit, I called 
yesterday on the Rev. Edmond Hogan, S. J., of 
the Catholic University, Stephen's Green, Dublin. 
He is by far the most cultured of Irish priests, — a 
profound scholar in almost every branch of learn- 
ing. He has written several books on Irish gram- 
mar and language idioms and is now engaged on 
an ' ' Onomasticon, ' ' or work on Irish place names. 
In a word, I consider him to be the greatest living 
authority on names of persons and places in Ire- 
land. He thinks that Dr. Joyce's book on Irish 
place-names, great and valuable as it is, has been 
written so long, and so much has been learned 

41 




The Surname McAleer. 

about the Irish language since it was written, that 
something new on the subject is required. 

He thinks that the original form of the name 
MacAleer was ^j-^c '-,i(>iiaUj'ci^ {Mac Giolla 
UidJiir), or in literal English, " the son of the fol- 
lower of the pale, wan, or dun, (one)." Uidhir is 
pronounced, as nearly as it can be written, ooir. 
The well authenticated forms of other names in 
English when they have the prefix Mac Giolla, in 
the original Irish, gives great probability to 
Father Hogan 's idea that the original form of the 
name Mac Leare was Mac Giolla Sosa, " son of the 
servant or follower of Jesus. " We know that the 
name Mac Alarry, and our authorities are the late 
John 'Donovan and the late AV. N. Hennessey 
(the foremost Irish scholars of their day), was 
originally Mac Giolla Arraith. We know that the 
name Mac Elroj^ was in the original Irish Mac 
Giolla Righ, " the son of the servant, disciple, or 
follower of the king." 

The word uidhir, meaning pale, wan, or dun, is 
the genitive singular masculine of the adjective 
odJiar. Its genitive feminine uidhra is found in 
the name of one of the most precious of Ancient 
Irish Manuscripts the LeAtJAjiTiA bd Uit]\8 {Leab- 
Jiar na bo uidhra), or translated, " The Book of 
the dun cow," — because the vellum on which it 
was written was made out of the skin of a dun cow. 
The name has been shortened into Leabhar na 
h-Uidhre, the word bo, a cow, being understood 
before the adjective uidhre. It would seem, then, 
according to the Rev. E. Hogan, that Mac Uidhir, 
the authenticated original Irisli form of Mac Guire, 
or Maguire,2t)AC 5ioUAUj'6jit(il/ac Giolla Uidhir), 
the supposed original form of Mac Clure, and 
Mac Giolla Uidhir, the supposed original form of 

42 



The Sukname McAleer. 

Mac Aleer, are practically the same name ; for the 
word uidhir, genitive masculine singular of odhar, 
dun, pale, wan, seems to be the foundation from 
which the names MacAleer, MacClure, and 
MacGuire, or Maguire have sprung. 

There are what might be called positive and neg- 
ative proofs that the original Irish form of 
MacAleer was Mac Giolla Uidhir, servant, disci- 
ple, follower or imitator of the dun (one), which 
must not be overlooked; for the Irish form of the 
name, exactly as I have written it, occurs in the 
annals of Ulster under the year 1216, where it is 
stated that Eachdunn Mac Giolla Uidhir, Arch- 
bishop of Armagh, died. He must have been an 
eminent man, for he was a member of the Lateran 
Council of A. D. 1215. That is something positive. 
The negative is in the seemingly total absence of 
the names MacAleer, MacClure, and MacLir from 
the Indexes of personal names in Irish Annals, — 
and I have searched them all. The earliest men- 
tion of the name MacLir is found in Cormac's 
Glossary, written about the year 900, and here 
it is : — 

" Manannan MacLir, a celebrated merchant 
who was in the Isle of Mann. He was the best 
Pilot that was in the west of Europe. He used to 
know by studying the Heavens, the period which 
would be fine weather, and when bad weather, and 
when each of these two conditions would change. 
"Inde Scoti et Britonis eum deum vocaverunt 
maris; et inde filium maris esse dixeruut, i. e. 
MacLir, son of the sea. Et de nomine Manannan 
the Isle of Man is named. ' ' All the English in the 
above extract is a translation of the Irish. The 
Latin is not translated. Irish and Latin are often 
curiously mixed in Ancient Irish documents. Cor- 

43 



The Surname McAleer. 

mac's Glossary, from which the above extract is 
taken, was translated by the justly celebrated 
John 'Donovan, and edited by another great 
Irish scholar, still living, Whitley Stokes. 

I have found the name Mac Uidhir in MacFir- 
bis's Genealogies, but the date of his birth or 
death is not given. All that is known or said 
about him is that he was of the Cineul Eoghain, or 
people of Tyrone. MacFirbis's book was written 
about the year 1650. It is a very large book of 
800 pages, all in Irish. It has not yet been trans- 
lated or published; but a very fine manuscript 
copy of it, made by Eugene 'Curry, is in the 
Royal Irish Academy. The original copy in the 
handwriting of Mac Firbis is in the possession of 
the Earl of Roden. It is a book of great value, and 
should have been published long ago, and would 
have been but for lack of funds. Just imagine the 
paltry sum the Royal Irish Academy gets from the 
English government — less than £3,000 a year, 
while the British Museum gets £140,000. 

I think I have now given you all the information 
about the name McAleer that I have been able to 
get up to the present ; but be assured that if I 
come on any more information about it I will com- 
municate it to you. 

I think that what I have been able to gather so 
far, is very much in favor of proving that 
2t]AC ojolU \Ji]t\Ke{]\Iac Giolla Uidhre), " son of 
the follower of the dun" (one) is the original 
form of your name. I have not been able to find 
the nominative form of the genitive uidhir, which 
is odhar, in any of the genealogies, and evidently 
because all Irish surnames are in the genitive; 
Mac or 0' is always expressed or understood be- 
fore them, and that throws the root name into the 

44 



The Surname McAleer. 

genitive. Who the odhar, or " dun " (one or name 
understood) was I have not been able to find out. 

There are some place names in these Islands and 
I cannot think otherwise than that they are con- 
nected with Mannanan Mac Lir. There is Lyrpool, 
the oldest known spelling of Liverpool, and 
there is Dun-Lir, in the County Louth. 

Many thanks for your P. 0. order ; but you 
might not have sent it ; for I am ever willing to 

give any information I can give on a subject in 
which I take such interest as in that of Irish per- 
sonal names and place names. 

Very sincerely yours, 

T. 'Neill Russell. 

P. S. 1 was not right in saying that the name 
Mac Giolla Uidhir was spelled thus in the Annals 
of Ulster, for the second word is spelled " Gille,'^ 
which was the old orthographical form. 



37 North Strand, Dublin, May 3, 1905. 
Geo. McAleer, Esq., M. D., 

Worcester, Mass., U. S. A. 
Dear Sir; — 

I posted you a card on Saturday, April 29, ac- 
knowledging your favor of April 17, I think, and 

thanking you for your remittance of £ . You 

are embarassingly generous for I did not expect 
any remuneration whatever for doing the very 
small thing you asked me to do for you — a thing 
that was a real pleasure to me ; for I have always 
taken a great interest in the subject of Irish per- 
sonal and place names, and have made it a study 
for many years. So I hope that if you should 
wish to make further inquiries on the subject, you 
will not fail to apply to me ; and be assured that I 

45 



The Surname McAleee. 

will do everything in my power to answer any in- 
quiries you may ask of me ; but please remember, 
no more remittances. 

I have hardly a shadow of a doubt as to the ab- 
solute correctness of the origin of the name 
MacAleer, which I gave you in my last; but you 
seem to think that those who bore it were not orig- 
inally of Irish Celtic stock. There is no reason 
whatever to think that they were not, but every 
reason to think that they were. We may not be 
able to find out who the original odliar, or dun or 
pale one, was, after whom the Mac Giolla Uidhirs, 
that is the MacAleers and MacClures were named ; 
but that he was a native Irishman and a Celt, there 
is no reason to doubt. Irish personal names very 
often arise from personal peculiarities, as the very 
common name Traynor, or Trainir, from Treure 
fhear, meaning strong man ; Munroe, from Muin 
ruadh, meaning red neck; Kanavan from 
Ceann ban, meaning whitehead; Campbell, from 
Ca7n heal, meaning crooked mouth; Cameron, 
from Cam shron, meaning crooked nose ; Galbraith 
from Geal bairead, meaning white hat; Sullivan 
in all prohabilifij, from Suil bhan, meaning white 
eye; Confickle, from Co7i fiacail, meaning dog or 
hound-tooth, given probably to some one who had 
remarkably fine, white teeth. But the most curious 
instance of the change that Irish names undergo 
when they become Anglicised is found in the very 
common Irish name, Gaynor. In Irish it is 
MacFhionnbhar, from Finn or Fionn, white, and 
harr, top, — applied evidently to some one who had 
very white hair. It is interesting to trace how 
the phonetic changes occurred in this name, when 
it came to be pronounced by English speakers. 
The Irish pronunciation of the name is, as nearly 

46 



The Surname McAleer. 

as it can be given phonetically, Moh Innawar, the 
the initial F being silent in Irish. The initial M 
became lost, the c of Mac became thickened into g, 
and so we have Gaynor ! Such is one instance of 
the extraordinary manner in which Irish sur- 
names become corrupted when pronounced by 
speakers of English. Do not suppose that I relate 
the seemingly impossible change that has taken 
place in the name '* Mac Fhionnbharr " solely on 
my own authority, for I have the authority of the 
greatest Irish scholar who ever lived for it, name- 
ly, John 'Donovan. We know that MacAonghuis 
has become Guines, Guiness, Ennis, Innis, Mc 
Guiness, and Maclnness. 

You will, no doubt, be glad to hear that never be- 
fore in modern times has such widespread and 
general interest been taken in the Celtic 
language, Celtic literature, and Celtic history, 
than at present, and never, perhaps, during many 
centuries past, have there been so many com- 
petent Celtic, particularly Gaelic, scholars in 
existence as there are at present. The im- 
mense quantity of ancient and still untranslat- 
ed Irish Manuscripts that exist, and the unique- 
ness of their contents, have awakened the curios- 
ity of many of the foremost scholars not only of 
these islands but also of continental Europe; and 
Germany, it would seem, can boast of possessing 
more good scholars in old and middle Irish than 
Ireland can. France has very good Gaelic schol- 
ars also, and in Paris is published a most import- 
ant publication dealing solely with Celtic litera- 
ture, namely the ^^ Revue Celtique." It treats of 
Welsh and Breton as well as of Irish; but I need 
hardly say that more space is given in it to Irish 
than to any other of the Celtic languages. The 

47 



The Surname McAleer. 

''Revue Celtique" is issued four times a year, and 
is partly in French and partly in English, but 
mostly in French. Germany has also a publication 
dealing exclusively with Celtic languages, but 
principally with Irish. The name of the publica- 
tion is '' Zeitschrift der Keltische Sprache/' I 
think ; and it is published in Halle, Germany. 

I send you by this post a drama of mine en- 
titled, ' ' The Last Irish King. ' ' It has been great- 
ly, perhaps unworthily, admired, and pronounced, 
even by some who are the reverse of nationalists 
the best historical drama relating to Ireland that 
has ever been written. Copies of it have been sent 
to almost every publication in London that re- 
views books, but not one of the purely English 
ones has ever noticed it. If the drama, like some 
utterly ridiculous ones by one Yates and others, 
treated of Ireland before the English invasion, the 
English reviewers would have noticed it ; but be- 
cause " The Last Irish King " exposes English in- 
justice and cruelty in Ireland, English reviewers 
boycott it ! Can anything more superlatively mean 
than this be conceived? But in spite of the way 
the drama has been boj^cotted by English review- 
ers, it has been a great success in Ireland. It was 
acted three times in Cork last winter by the Cork 
National Theatre Society, and will be acted in 
many places throughout Ireland next winter. Four 
enormous volumes, the object of which was to give 
short sketches of all who have distinguished them- 
selves as writers of English in England, Ireland 
and Scotland from the time of Chaucer to the time 
of Tennyson, have lately appeared in London ; but 
not one word is said in them about Davis, Mangan, 
MacCarthy, Lover, Ferguson, Magee, or even 
Lever ! This will show you the way everyone who 

48 



The Surname McAleer. 

preaches Irish nationalism, even in its mildest 
form, is boycotted by England. The four volumes 
I have mentioned are by two well known English- 
men named Goss and Garnett. They do full jus- 
tice to Burke, Goldsmith and Sheridan because 
these men were not national Irishmen, and never 
raised their voices, or wrote a word about the suf- 
ferings of their country, or the wrongs inflicted 
upon her. Don't suppose that Goldsmith's '' De- 
serted Village " alludes solely to Ireland; the 
name was coined by Goldsmith. Lissoy is the 
name of the place where his father's house was, 
the ruins of which still remain. 

The stand that Art Mac Murrough made so long 
against the overwhelming hosts of the English is 
the least known, but at the same time it is the most 
heroic episode in not only all Irish history, but in 
all history ; and it is strange that no one has ever 
attempted to dramatize it before. I hope you will 
read the preface before you read the drama, as I 
have tried to make the latter as truly historic as 
possible. I have another historical drama entitled 
'' Eed Hugh;" or the '^ Life and Death of Hugh 
Eoe 'Donnell, ' ' now ready. It will be published 
in a month or two, and a copy of it will be sent to 
you. 

Assuring you that I will have the greatest pleas- 
ure in answering any of your further enquiries 
about names, etc., believe me 

Very sincerely yours, 

T. 0. Russell. 



49 



The Surname McAleer. 

5 Chester Road, 

Dublin, December 12, 1905. 

Geo. McAleer, Esq., M. D., 

Worcester, Mass., U. S. A. 
Dear Mr. McAleer : 

Yours of Dec. 11 has just come to hand. I am 
busy writing a prose work on Ireland, but I should 
be very busy indeed when I would not make time 
to answer any question you would ask me. 

There exists no rule about the prefixes ''Mac" 
and ' '. " Mac means son, and ' means grand- 
son or descendant of. Both by extension of mean- 
ing mean a male descendant. The genitive of Mac 
is Ua, and the genitive of ' is I ; but ' and Ua 
mean exactly the same thing, but the genitive case 
of Mac or Mc is Ui. All purely Irish surnames 
must have Mac or ' before them. Neither Mac 
nor 0' nor Ua are ever placed before a woman's 
name. The feminine prefix is Ui, which seems a 
shortened form of Inghean, meaning daughter. 

Mac in the name of Guinness has not a letter of 
it left. The name was originally Mac Aonguis in 
Irish; the Maoi Mac got to be disused, and the c of 
Mac got thickened into g which became the initial 
in the name Guinness ; but the name Gaynor has 
undergone the most extraordinary change of per- 
haps any Irish surname. It was originally Mac 
Fhionnabhar. The Ma or Mac got to be omitted ; 
the F of the patronymic was not pronounced, as it 
never is when succeeded by the letter h ; hence we 
have the common, plentiful Irish name, Gaynor. 

Mac and ', and surnames in general came into 
use in Ireland in the 10th and 11th century. As far 
as antiquity and position go, there is no difference 
between the prefixes 0' and Mac. One is as old 

SO 



The Sukname McAleer. 

and as much used as the other, except in Scotland 
where ' rarely occurs. Only one instance of a 
name in Scotland with the prefix ' now occurs to 
me, and that is the name 'Duibhue, which is the 
real name of the Duke of Argyle, and not Camp- 
bell or Cambell, which latter is only a nick-name, 
and means ''crooked mouth." I have been look- 
ing through Mac Firbis's genealogies but cannot 
find your name in them ; — the odliar or dun or pale 
one from whom the McAleers, McClures, Mc- 
Guires and Maguires may have sprung is men- 
tioned, and he is put down as a descendant of 
Cairhe Liffsachair, who was chief king of Ireland 
in the third century ; but it is impossible to tell 
who this "odhar" was, for there might be many 
pale or dun men whose descendants would have 
the same name stem, and might not be related at 
all. I think I told you in a former letter that your 
name occurs once in the Annals of the Four Mas- 
ters. Here is a copy of the entry : ' ' Each dun 
Mac Gille Uidhir, Cosob, (successor) of St. Pat- 
rick and Primate of Ireland, died in Rome after a 
well-spent life ; A. D. 1216. ' ' So you can claim an 
illustrious namesake, and probably one of the 
family from whom you are descended. Above is 
the oldest and the only mention of your name that 
I have so far been able to find in ancient Irish 
Annals ; but if at some future time I find any men- 
tion of it, you may be sure you will hear from me 
about it. That it is a name derived from personal 
peculiarity there cannot be a doubt. Many Irish 
names, as stated in a previous letter, are so deriv- 
ed, such as Muinac, Redneck ; Trainir or Trainor, 
strong man; Cameron, crooked nose, etc., etc. 
That Mac Giolla Uidhir is the proper Irish of 
your name, neither I, nor any one competent to 

51. 



The Surname McAleer. 

judge of such matters, can have any doubt what- 
ever. 

Very sincerely and gratefully yours, 

T. 0. Russell. 

P. S. — As a consonant followed by an h as in 
the word Uidhir loses or alters its sound, your 
name would be pronounced in Irish something 
like this, Mok GUV Eer, — not very different from 
MacAleer. 

T. 0. R. 



The writer of the following letter, an Admiral 
in the British Navy, Traveller and Author, fur- 
nishes the following data in reference to the Eng- 
lish branch of the family : 

Chiddingfold, Godalming, England, 

May 30, 1907. 
Dr. George McAleer, 

Worcester, Mass., U. S. A., 

Dear Doctor : 

The question you have asked in your letter of 
the 17th is a very interesting one, but is not easily 
answered in a particular, though it may be in a gen- 
eral way. As far as I have learned, the Maclears 
were originally from the western isles of Scotland 
and were related to the Maclears, the Macleays, 
Maclvors, Macdonnells, and McDonnells. My 
particular branch of Maclears settled in the north 
of Ireland, but I don't know when. One of them 
went over to the United States in 1798 and his de- 
scendants are there now. Some 30 years ago a 

52 



The Sukname McAleee. 

cousin of mine met the soi-disant count Albany^ 
and learning that he was the best living authority 
on all subjects connected with Scottish pedigrees, 
asked him about the Maclears. He explained to 
him all about the tribal and clannish obligations 
of Highland life as far back as Culloden, and he 
said that Maclear was only one of the variants of 
a stock name that had split into many sub-divis- 
ions — Maclear, Macliver, Macivor, and several 
others that were all the same, he said, originally, 
and all came from Skye and the Western isles, and 
they would have fought under the flag of Camp- 
bell, chief of Argyle. He showed him the tartans 
to which we are entitled, but he thought that prob- 
ably the particular name would not be traceable 
now in Skye. For the immigrations into Ireland 
from the western coast of Scotland were very of- 
ten the consequences of political misdemeanors 
which would have meant the block if they had 
been brought home as the guilty parties, and, 
therefore, it would generally be an object with 
those returning to conceal their affairs and to de- 
stroy all local traces of their past history. 

It is noteworthy that many of the families I 
have named — the Maclears, Macdonalds, and 
others have the same crest — a cock — and this is al- 
so associated with the sun in splendor in the An- 
trim arms. I have come across the name Maclear 
in history, one of that name having been sent to 
Sweden in 1648, 1 think, to purchase timber for 
ship building. If I remember aright, he came 
from Preston. 

The motto with the crest is "Clarus ab ortu" — 
Clear from the beginning. The origin of the name 
would be very difficult to trace. Surnames were 

53 



The Surname McAleer. 

of very gradual introduction. Hereditary sur- 
names made their appearance in the 12th century. 
One may detect the origin of such residential sur- 
names as Woods, Green, Lane, Townshend, AVells 
and the like in their descriptive entries— John at 
the Wood ; Agnes at the Townsend ; William by 
the Green ; Richard by the Kirkgate ; Thomas at 
the Well. In the Celtic names— From Maol, "a 
tonsured servant," we have such names as Ma- 
lone, Maloney, and Mulready. Malcom means the 
tonsured servant of St. Columba. 

Mag or Mac, " Son," which in Wales becomes 
Map and Ap, has given rise to a host of patrony- 
mic surnames. Maclear is Mac-giolla-ear— the 
son or follower or servant of John. Mackay, Ma- 
gee and Kay are corruptions of MacAedha. These 
last notes I have extracted from Chambers 
Enclycopedia, which has a very good article on 
names. 

I think I now have given you all that I know 
about Maclear. 

Another cousin, searching some records for a 
history that he was writing, came across some 
entries of Maclair. There is no certainty that 
they are the same, but the names have a strangely 
familiar sound— who in 1650 as John Maclier or 
Maclieve (sometimes designated the Sieur Mac- 
lier and Sir John Maclier) procured ammunition 
in Sweden for Charles II. 

George Mcllair of Prestown gave a contribution 
of £1,000 to buy and receive victuals as prescribed 
by Act of Parliament, November 15, 1627. Will 
of Jean, relict of Adam Macclaire in Prestown, 
1662-1689. George MacLair of Prestown, deceas- 

54 



The Surname McAleer. 

ed son and heir of George Maclair, 1664. John 
Macklaire owns 6 acres of land and 6 houses in 
Barbadoes 1678-9. 

They were not particular about spelling in 
those days and those MacLair or Macliers were, 
doubtless, the progenitors of the Maclears and 
Machers of the present time. 

I hope this letter may be of some assistance to 
you. 

Yours truly, 

J. P. Maclear. 




55 



McAleer Genealogy. 




McALEER GENEALOGY 





UGH McALEERS as this surname is 
now spelled by the branch of the 
family under consideration, and 
his wife, Catharine Keenan, the 
ancestors of those whose genealo- 
gy is traced in the accompanying 
pedigree or family tree, were 
natives of the County Tyrone, Ire- 
land, where they lived their allotted time, and 
where they are buried with their kith and kin. The 
dates of their birth, marriage and death are un- 
known to the writer, but they were, doubtless, born 
during the last half of the eighteenth century, and 
died very probably during the early years of the 

nineteenth. 

They were the parents of nine children— Ann, 
Ellen, Susan, Sabina (Shibby), Mary, Lawrence, 
Michael, Miles— all of whom reached maturity, 
and sonie of them lived to old age. It is not at 

56 



McAleek Genealogy. 

present known to me whether or not their names, 
as given, are in chronological order, and as oppor- 
tunity has not offered for the investigation of bap- 
tismal or other records, no attempt has been made 
at verification or correction. 

Ann married Peter McCullough; Ellen, Philip 
McCullough; Susan, Patrick Martin; Sabina 

(Shibby), Patrick Woods; Mary, _; 

Lawrence-, Catherine Gormley for his first wife 
and Mary McCullough for his second ^ Michael, 

; Miles, Ellen McKeon or Mc- 

Gowan* ; and Patrick, Ann McKeon or McGowan ; 
the wives of Miles and Patrick being sisters. So 
far as known to the writer, with the exception of 
the son Lawrence-, all lived and died in Ireland. 

LAWRENCE McALEER^ AND HIS DESCEND- 
ANTS. 

LAWRENCE", son of Hugh% was born in 1781. 
He married his first wife, Catharine Gormley in 
1798, when he was seventeen years old. To this 
union two daughters were born, Ann and Catha- 
rme, when the wife and mother died. 

He married his second wife, Mary McCullough, 
in 1808, to which union was born two sons and four 
daughters, Theresa, Mary, Miles, John, Brid- 
get and Jane, named in the order of their 
birth. She died in Ireland a few years before he 
emigrated to Canada in 1831 with his unmarried 
children, as related elsewhere by his daughter, 
Mary McGuire, the writer's aunt. 

No knowledge of the descendants of his brothers 

<.^J^T^}n^ '° the lack of precision when pronouncing the names McKeon 
trnJu^onrM^H^ ^'■^ 2"z?". confounded, McKeon, an Sh surname 
rrom Mac or Mc, Son. and Uoin or Ogan, a youth This name hncs iVn^or 
gone many transformations in its orthoVraphy. soLeTf which are" 
Owen.T,*rP«n^'^?°>,'"' McCune, McKeowen^ MacKeonEwin? Owens 
&^°a"c^o?Vc°S°a"nd ^^'^^l^' ^'^'^^ McGowan^fron^Th^e 

57 



McAleee Genealogy. 

and sisters is known to this branch of the family, 
save that his brother Patrick, who married Ann 
McKeon or McGown, had a family of five children, 
three sons and two daughters, George, Miles, Pat- 
rick Ann and Catharine. George was a farmer 
and 'drover— a buyer of live stock that he drove to 
market and disposed of on market days ; Miles, a 
farmer on the old homestead ; Patrick was ordain- 
ed Priest; Ann married '» and 

Catharine married — ^• 



CHILDREN OF LAWRENCE McALEER^ 
AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. 

The offspring of the first marriage were two 
daughters, Ann and Catharine ; and of the second 
six children— Theresa, Mary, Miles, John, Brid- 
get and Jane. 

ANN married ■ , and lived and 

died in Ireland. 
CATHARINE married John Bradley. To this 
union were born two children, Lawrence and 
Mary, when the husband and father died and 
was buried in his native county, Tyrone. His 
widow and her two children immigrated to Cana- 
da in 1847 with Michael McCullongh and his 
wife and familv, Mrs. McCullough being her 
half-sister. The widow Bradley died at the 
home of another half-sister, Mrs. Barney Mc- 
Guire, in the parish of Ste Brigide, D 'Iberville 
County, Lower Canada, now known as the Prov- 
ince of Quebec, and is buried in the Roman 



58 



McAleee Genealogy. 

Catholic graveyard of that parish. This parish 
at that time was largely settled by emigrants 
from Ireland, and because of their numbers and 
in compliment to them, it was named Saint 
Bridget, one of the patron saints of their native 
land. 

Her son, Lawrence, married his first wife, Ellen 
Smith, in Worcester, Mass., and returned to Dun- 
ham, P. Q., to live. He bought a farm near his 
uncle, Michael McCullough, where seven children, 
the offspring of his first marriage, were born, — 
Mary Jane, who died in infancy ; Catharine, who 
married Sewall S. Ingraham, in Worcester, Mass., 
both having died without leaving issue ; John, who 
married Rose McArdle; Mary Ellen; Delia, who 
married Joseph McGuinness ; Thomas, who died 
in Providence, R. I. ; and Elizabeth, who died in 
childhood. The wife and mother died in her Cana- 
dian home and is buried in the Roman Catholic 
graveyard in Dimham, P. Q. 

The father soon after returned to Worcester, 
Mass., with his family, where he married his sec- 
ond wife, the widow Rose (Doherty) Hani on. To 
this union were born three children, Anne, who 
married John R. Murphy, then of Auburn, Mass., 
but now engaged in the meat and provision busi- 
ness in Waltham, Mass. ; Lawrence died in child- 
hood; and John Nicholas, who now resides in 
Providence, R. I. He died at the home of his 
daughter, Mrs. Murphy, in Waltham, and is bur- 
ied in St. John's (Roman Catholic) cemetery, 
Worcester. 

Mary Bradley, sister of Lawrence Bradley, 
married Thomas McGovern of East Farnham, 
Missisquoi County, P. Q. They had three child- 



59 



McAleer Genealogy. 

Ten, Delia, who married John O'Dea, Edward and 
Elizabeth, who married David Tmmng. She is 
buried in the Roman Catholic graveyard, Dunham, 

P. Q. , 

THERESA, the first offspring of the second mar- 
riage, was born May 18, 1809, and she married 
Michael McCullough of the parish of Drumles 
Bar, County Tyrone, in 1829. They took their 
departure for America from Strabane, County 
Tyrone, April 8th, 1847, together with their four 
children, Patrick, James, Mary and John, and 
the widow Bradley, (Mrs. McCullough's half- 
sister), and her two children, Lawrence and 
Mary They sailed from Londonderry, April 
16, and landed in Ste. Brigide at the home of 
Barney McGuire, June 20. , 

They settled soon after on a farm, then far in 
the wilderness and miles away from their nearest 
neighbor, in the town of Dunham, in the County ot 
Missisquoi, near the foot of Pinacle mountain, 
and now known as East Dunham. 

Michael McCullough, whom the writer well re- 
members, was a tall well-built man, a man of coo - 
ness, dignity, and quiet determination-a well- 
balanced man of more than ordinary ability,— a 
man who lived an upright and useful life, and died 
respected by all who knew him. He passed to his 
reward, October 30, 1873, aged 76 years. His wife 
died May 25, 1865, aged 56 years and 7 days. 

Their son Patrick engaged in the livery stable 
business in New Haven, Connecticut, where he 
died a bachelor, and where he is buried. ^ ^. ^ 
James was born October 15, 1832, and died 
March 9, 1895. He married Lucretia Lavery, to 
which union were born three children, now (1909) 
living on the old homestead,— Michael, Patrick 

60 



McAleee Genealogy. 

and Jane. His wife was born in St. Armand East, 
February 3, 1833, and died November 12, 1895. 
Michael, one of their sons, married Mary Dun- 
leavy of West Shefford, and they live with his 
brother and sister in the old home,— Patrick and 
Jane remaining unmarried. 

John was drowned in early manhood in Bakers- 
field, Vt., July 28, 1861, aged 19 years. Mary mar- 
ried Andrew Garland, both of whom are dead. 

Michael McCullough and his wife, Theresa, 
their sons James and John and daughter Mary, 
James' wife and Mary's husband, are buried in 
the graveyard adjoining the Roman Catholic 
Church in Dunham. 



MARY, the second child of the second marriage, 
emigrated to Canada with her father (Law- 
rence^), brothers and sisters, in 1831. She was 
married to Barney McGuire in 1835. They were 
married in the parish church of Saint Mary de 
Monnoir, County Rouville, P. Q. He was a quiet 
unobtrusive man, a man of sterling integrity. 
He was a moulder by trade, but this he aban- 
doned because of delicate health, and they settl- 
ed on a farm in the parish of Ste. Brigide, 
County d 'Iberville, where they raised a family 
of eight children,— Catharine Jane, who marri- 
ed William Boucher in Ste. Brigide, November 
3, 1875 ; Francis, who died a bachelor in April, 
1867 ; Mary, died unmarried October 2, 1877 ; 
Bridget married Patrick Brennan in Ste. Brig- 
ide, November 3, 1865, and died in Lynn, Mass 
December 27, 1894, where she is buried ; James 



61 



McAleee Genealogy. 

died unmarried December 18, 1872 ; Agnes mar- 
ried James Donnelly, February 24, 1873, and 
they now reside in Lowell, Mass. ; Anme died 
unmarried in 1864; Eosa married Moses Cho- 
quette, February 16, 1885, and they now reside 
upon the old homestead. 

Barney McGuire died January 15, 1893, and his 
wife died May 28, 1896. Both are buried as are 
also all their deceased children, except Bridget, m 
the Eoman Catholic graveyard adjoining the par- 
ish Church of Ste. Brigide. 



MILES% son of Lawrence^ and grandson of 
Hughs the third child of the second marriage, 
and father of the writer of this sketch, was born 
on the old homestead in the County Tyrone, Ire- 
land, in 1811. He married Jane McConnell m 
1829' and emigrated to Canada in 1834, with his 
young wife and three small children, John, Law- 
rence, and Reynolds, named in the order of their 
birth, the youngest being an infant about two 
months old in his mother's arms. Their other 
children, Barney, Mary, James, George, Joseph 
and Francis were born on the old homestead up- 
on which their parents first settled soon after 
coming to Canada, and which is still m the pos- 
session of the family. 




62 



McAleer Genealogy. 





EMIGRATION OF MILES McALEER^ 
AND FAMILY. 

HE father of Miles McAleer^ Law- 
rence', and his children, the 
brother and sisters of Miles, had 
now been in the new world for some 
time, and the lengthening days, 
weeks, and years, instead of breed- 
ing f orgetf nines s and bringing 
resignation, only emphasized the 
sorrows of the parting and separation, and inten- 
sified the desire for reunion. The infrequent let- 
ters that came from far-away America were only 
as fuel to the fire and hastened the fated hour. 

The decision was finally made and the time of 
their departure fixed. The days were counted, and 
as they passed, distant friends visited them to of- 
fer words of sympathy, comfort, and good cheer. 
Although fortified by the pleasant anticipations of 
family reunion in the new world, and buoyed up 
with the hope of bettering their conditions in a 
land where all of the persecutions of the old would 
not follow them, they little realized the sacrifices 
that they were about to make, or the anguish that 
the future had in store for them. 

The last Sunday came. As usual they were in 
their accustomed seats in the parish church. How 
strangely unreal sounded the tinkling bell at the 
Elevation ! The mingled voices and sobs of friends 

63 



McAleer Gez^tealogy. 

and neighbors who surrounded them after Mass 
seemed as never before. How strangely looked 
the church when on their way homewards they 
turned to gaze upon it for the last time ! Arrived 
at their home, only old familiar scenes and sur- 
roundings greeted their vision; but now how 
changed they seemed, and with what a strange 
significance they now appeared to them; every- 
thing that they looked at became more important 
and dearer than ever before. The westerning sun 
upon their last day hid itself when nearing the 
horizon behind a darkening cloud. Night was 
ushered in, but instead of repose it brought only a 
load of sorrow— sleep they knew not. Morning 
dawned and soon all were astir. Their pastor, 
Eev. Edward Boyle, soon after arrived to bring 
spiritual comfort and consolation, and to bestow 
the blessings of the church upon the departing 
ones. Hoping that his friendship and kindly of- 
fices for this portion of his flock might continue 
with and aid them in their home in the distant 
western world he placed the following testimonial 
in the hands of the youthful head of the house- 
hold : 

'' The undersigned certifies that Miles McAleer 
and wife have lived in this parish many years, 
conducting themselves honestly, industriously and 
religiously. I have no hesitation in recommendmg 
them as Persons in whom confidence may be safe- 
ly placed." 

Edward Boyle, 

Pastor Lower Bodoney. 
May 24, 1834. 

During the early morning hours friends and 
neighbors from far and near gathered with sad- 

64 



McAleer Genealogy. 

dened faces and bated breath. Neighbor spoke to 
neighbor in whispers. In this sorrowing hour 
those about to depart from their native land for- 
ever were largely left alone with their own flesh 
and blood — their communings were too tender and 
sacred to be intruded upon but by those united to 
them by closest ties. The morning wore away, and 
at last the rumble of the mail coach which was to 
carry them to the seaport, was heard in the dis- 
tance. A wail of sorrow filled the air, but the 
stage driver, inured to such scenes, hastily dis- 
mounted and brusquely called for aid to assist 
him in loading their scanty belongings. This was 
soon accomplished when he coarsely ordered them 
into the coach, — when, oh ! the cry of agony at the 
parting ! — the parting forever in this world ! La- 
mentations pierced the skies as a wail of woe from 
breaking hearts. Torn from the arms of their 
own flesh and bood and forced into the coach, the 
crack of the driver's whip was heard, the horses 
galloped wildly away, and clouds of dust shut 
them out from the sight of loving friends and 
from their old hearth and home forever. 

To the departing ones it seemed at first as if the 
light of day had departed and the darkness of 
night had supervened. An oppressive weight of 
gloom and sorrow were their only companions 
throughout the day and the following night. Sail- 
ing away from Londonderry, their port of depart- 
ure, to an unknown world, on the Mary Cummings 
— a rude, unsanitary and ill-provided ship in 
which passengers were densely packed — an apol- 
ogy for a ship that would not now be allowed to 
transport cattle — they started on a rough and tem- 
pestuous voyage across the Atlantic that lasted 
nine weeks and three days. It now dawned upon 

65 



McAleer Genealogy. 

them, as never before, what the sundering of old 
ties and old associations meant. Scalding tears 
darkened their vision and rolled down their 
cheeks, and uncontrolled pangs of pain gnawed at 
their hearts and sent a chill throughout their 
bodies. Their sorrowful reflections spared them 
the full realization of the hardships, deprivations 
and sufferings of the trip. During severe and pro- 
longed storms that supervened the passengers 
were ordered below, the hatches battened down, 
and for days at a time they were left to breathe 
the noxious atmosphere in their close and ill-ven- 
tilated quarters,— surpassed only by the black hole 
of Calcutta. This produced malignant typhus from 
which some sickened and died— the dreaded ship 
fever, so-called, which sent thousands and tens of 
thousands of their countrymen to untimely graves. 
The most merciless enemy could not devise a more 
cruel or relentless method by means of which to ex- 
terminate an unoffending people. 

Language cannot adequately portrav the sor- 
rowings and anguish of death and burial at sea, 
nor the depressing effect it had upon the surviv- 
ing passengers. The apprehension that each indi- 
vidual might be the next called, or some loved one, 
gave each moment added significance and length- 
ened the minutes into hours, hours into days, days 
into weeks, and weeks into seeming never ending 
periods of time. 

In addition to the other burdens and trials of the 
wife and mother, she suffered severely from sea- 
sickness, had to nurse and care for her infant 
child but a few weeks old, and assist in the care of 
her oldest boy, John, then about four years old, 
who had fallen into a tub of boiling water which so 
scalded his hands that the fingers of one hand 

66 



McAleer Genealogy. 

dropped off and those on the other were maimed 
for life. This deplorable accident occurred but a 
short time before sailing, and the sufferings and 
helplessness of the child added another great bur- 
der to her grief and anxiety. 

Arrived at Montreal, they continued their jour- 
ney by mail stage to St. Johns, and thence in the 
well known two-wheeled, springless carts of the 
Habitants over almost impassable roads via Man- 
digo Corner and Henryville to Bedford,— the only 
highway then open to Bedford from St. Johns— 
where a joyous welcome awaited them. The joys 
of reunion were saddened soon after by the arrival 
of a letter from the old land which contained the 
sad news of the death of the father of the wife and 
mother — then in the vigor of manhood — with a 
broken heart. 

The story of the happiness resulting from the 
reunion of the long separated members of the fam- 
ily through the emigrations of 1831 and 1834, and 
the later one of 1847, was often told, and it served 
to lighten many burdens, to impart cheer to many 
darkened hours, and to reconcile them to their new 
homes, deprivations, and surroundings in the Ca- 
nadian wilderness. 

The husband and father, addressing himself at 
once to the serious, and, under the circumstances, 
the momentous task of making a home for himself, 
wife and children in the unbroken wilderness, toil- 
ed by day in the village grist-mill, in the oat-dry- 
ing kiln, where oats were prepared for grinding 
(oatmeal being then in general use in the house- 
hold), and in other occupations by day only to re- 
turn home in the evening to toil well into the night, 
and sometimes until daybreak the next morning, 
to reclaim a small portion of the land from the 

67 



McAleer Genealogy. 

primeval forest and fit it for cultivation for the 
maintenance of himself and family. Nor did the 
deep snows and excessive cold of the long 
Canadian winters lighten the toil or lessen the bur- 
den, for then must the giant trees be felled, the 
choicest logs be hauled away to the saw-mill, and 
the balance gathered into huge piles to be burned 
during the ensuing summer. 

This severe labor that would have discouraged 
and repelled a man less resolute, and which at the 
present time seems almost incredible, was contin- 
ued during nearly all the years of his shortened 
life. Strange as it may now seem, because of the 
great forest growth it was many years before a 
house in the village of Bedford could be seen from 
his home, although the land is level and the vil- 
lage less than a mile away. 

Toiling as he toiled, coupled with anxiety and 
the responsibility of a large family, the continued 
strain began to manifest itself in early manhood. 
For years he complained of weakness and pain in 
his stomach, and he described the sensation as if a 
rope was around his body and someone forcibly 
pulling at each end. The calamitous death of 
my brother, Lawrence, the second eldest of the 
family, in Worcester, Mass., in 1856, was a stag- 
gering blow from which his sensitive nature never 
recovered. Under the weight of this great sor- 
row he continued the work of building, but with 
lessened energy and resolution, the stone house 
then (1856) in process of construction upon the 
old homestead, (which was to disphice the original 
log cabin built in the same yard in 1834, and the 
frame addition thereto which was built in 1847) 
and which at this writing in 1909 is in the posses- 



68 



McAleer Genealogy. 

sion of and occupied by three members of the fam- 
ily, Barney, Mary, and Joseph. 

Soon after the completion of the family home he 
began in 1858 the erection of a frame house on the 
western part of the farm for the eldest member of 
the family, my brother John, but it was ordamed 
that the devoted father never should see it finish- 
ed. Of a kindly and sympathetic nature he ever 
mourned the loss of his son— the first great break 
in the family circle. The dark shadow of this af- 
fliction was an abiding sorrow, and it was painful- 
ly evident to his family and friends that it was de- 
veloping and accentuating his old trouble and 
making serious inroads upon his constitution. His 
glossy black hair had grown rapidly grey, the color 
faded from his cheeks, and his step had lost its 
wonted elasticity. The man who should have been 
in the full vigor of manhood at the age of 48, sud- 
denly became as a man borne down with the weight 
of years. One sunny day in springtime, while su- 
pervising the framing of the building, he was sud- 
denly stricken down, falling to the earth as if in a 
swoon. Kind hands and willing hearts ministered 
unto him, and when sufficiently revived he was as- 
sisted home, some half-mile away. A messenger 
had preceded him with the sad information when 
I was directed to go to him with a stimulating rem- 
edy, one of the popular nostrums of the time, that 
he had heretofore taken with apparent benefit. 

When I met him he was suffering great pain 
and looked deathly pale. He took a liberal quan- 
tity of the medicine, and after resting a short while 
and feeling somewhat relieved, his companions as- 
sisted him throughout the rest of the journey. On 
reaching home he immediately went to bed never 
again to leave it. The Doctor, George E. Pattee, 

69 



McAleer Genealogy. 

M. D., the only doctor then located in Bedford, 
was in early and almost constant attendance 
thereafter, but all in vain. 

As soon as it became known that he was critical- 
ly ill, relations, neighbors, and friends from far 
and near came to inquire for him, and to tender 
their sympathy and any aid that they could ren- 
der. But the day for human aid was past. Forti- 
fied and consoled by the sacraments of the church, 
with the rising sun on April 28, 1859, his soul 
winged its flight to its Maker and his body was 
freed from pain. His funeral obsequies was 
largely attended by people from miles around 
without reference to nationality or religion, and 
all gave testimony to his worth and loss. Requiem 
Mass was celebrated in the church then known as 
Notre Dame des Anges, at Des Rivieries, and in- 
terment was made in the graveyard adjoining the 
church connected therewith. Owing to a division 
of the territory later, and the building of new 
churches, this church is now replaced by another, 
Notre Dame de Stanbridge, at a place known lo- 
cally as Cotures, a few miles away. 

He was devotedly loyal to the church of his 
fathers. He ever strove to exemplify its lofty 
and elevating precepts and holy teachings in his 
every-day life. He was ever solicitous to instill 
religious principles into the minds and hearts of 
his children, and this he inculcated by example 
and precei)t. He lived an upright life, never 
scandalized his family, nor did aught that needed 
apology or defense, or that brought a blush of 
shame to the cheeks of his children. Before retir- 
ing at night, family piayers were offered up for 
the repose of the souls of the faithful departed, 
and in a special manner for the souls of relatives 

70 



McAleer Genealogy. 

and those for whom there was special obligation 
to pray, for those in affliction and misery, for the 
extension of God's kingdom on earth, in thanks- 
giving for the manifold mercies and blessings of 
the past, especially for those of the past day, 
coupled with petitions for the continuance of Di- 
vine clemency and blessings,— light, guidance,and 
strength. 

Owing to the necessary general oversight of the 
farm, to protect the buildings from fire, the care 
of the stock, and other duties, as well as the dis- 
tance from church (five miles), but half the mem- 
bers of the family could assist at Mass on Sun- 
days and Holydays, and in this they alternated 
with each other. During the time of Mass those 
remaining at home joined in the rosary, in spirit- 
ual reading, or in other devotional exercises. 

Possessed of more than a rudimentary educa- 
tion, and blessed with sagacity and practical 
knowledge of adapting means to ends, which he 
possessed in an unusual degree, he was often con- 
sulted by neighbors as to the proper size and loca- 
tion of buildings and their arrangements, the 
quality and value of domestic animals, the land 
best adapted for certain crops, the topography of 
the country in the matter of drainage to get best 
results, as referee and peacemaker in neighbor- 
hood differences and disputes, and in many other 
things. His honesty of purpose was never doubt- 
ed ; his integrity never questioned. 

In personal appearance, he was a man of 
medium height and weight, of clean-cut, regular 
and refined features, his face clean-shaven with 
the exception of a light growth of side-whiskers. 
While not wholly unmindful of the trivialities of 
life, he was generally disposed toward the more 

71 



McAleer Genealogy. 

contemplative, serious and exacting. The going 
hence of many has been signalized by greater cere- 
mony, but few have been more sincerely mourned 
by all who knew him. 

There is no picture of him in existence, but his 
autograph, taken from an old school book which 
has been in the writer's possession since written 
in more than fifty years ago, is herewith append- 
ed. 






Long years since, it was written that " The 
world knows not its greatest men"; and this is 
further emphasized in the works of Thomas 
Browne, published in A. D. 1686, wherein it is re- 
corded : " AVho knows whether there be not more 
remarkable men forgot than any that stand re- 
corded in the known account of Time." If to lead 
an upright life and do one's full duty to himself, 
to his family, to his adopted country, and especi- 
ally to the community in which he lived, although 
it was along humble lines and circumscribed, con- 
stitute true greatness, then indeed was Miles Mc- 
Aleer a success in life and truly great, even 
though his name is not perpetuated in enduring 
bronze nor recorded in the pages of history. 

Jane McConnell was his worthy wife and help- 
mate. She was the daughter of Revnolds and 
Mary (McCullough) IMcConnell, and was one of a 

72 




MRS. MILES IJANE McCONNELU) McALEER 



McAleek Genealogy. 

family of eight children, three sons and five 
daughters, — John, Barney, James, Jane, Ellen, 
Mary, Bridget and Marguerite. I have no data in 
reference to the sons. Ellen married Michael 
Brown, a daughter of whom married Joseph Mc- 
Cullough, (a cousin of my father) who immigrat- 
ed about 1850 to St. Johns, in the Maritime Prov- 
inces — but I am not certain whether it was St. 
Johns, Newfoundland, or St. Johns, New Bruns- 
wick. Mary married Felix McBride; Bridget, 
James Brown; Marguerite, Daniel Gormley; 
Jane, Miles McAleer, in 1829, when but seventeen 
years old. 

Taking on the responsibilities of life before at- 
taining her majority, she never shirked, never fal- 
tered. During the twenty-eight years of their 
married life they bravely met the storms and buf- 
fetings of the world. Of trials and tribulations 
they had their full share, but these, placing im- 
plicit confidence in the mercy of an over-ruling 
Providence, they bravely encountered and as 
bravely surmounted. In a less courageous and 
more effeminate age it is difficult to understand 
how they survived the many and seemingly over- 
whelming onslaughts and vicissitudes with which 
they met, and why they were not overwhelmed 
by their burdens and cast as shipwrecks upon the 
shores of Time. 

Few can realize to-day what it then meant to go 
as strangers to a strange land and that land a 
wilderness, — to go fortified with but little of this 
world's goods and less influence, to go and burn 
the bridges behind them, to go as a young couple 
scarcely beyond their majority burdened with the 
care of three helpless children, to go into a prime- 
val forest and there unaided to carve out a home 

73 



McAleer Genealogy. 

and rear, feed, clothe, and educate a large family. 
And yet this is just what this young man, Miles 
McAleer, and his still younger wife did in the 
wilds of the Eastern Townships of Canada, seven- 
ty-five years ago. The hardships and sorrowings 
of their departure from the old land, and the dis- 
comf ortures of the perilous trip across the ocean 
in those distant times, has already been hinted at, 
but these frequently had their counterpart, if dif- 
ferent, in their later years. I may be pardoned 
the mention of a few. On their arrival in the town- 
ship of Stanbridge, they repaired to the small log 
cabin of my grandfather, Lawrence", on the Ridge, 
so-called, about midway between Bedford and 
Stanbridge East, where they remained temporar- 
ily — the highway between these points being then 
but little better than a mere pathway through the 
woods, and it was impassable for the rude teams 
of the times during certain portions of the year. 
At the outset, he found employment in Bedford 
where he worked twelve hours a day, walking to 
and from his work morning and night, a distance 
of about two miles, and frequently carrying mer- 
chandise or a bag of grain on his back to the mill, 
and the flour or meal home again, for the family, 
or doing a similar service gratuitously for a 
neighbor. 

Christmas came and Henryville, sixteen miles 
distant, was the nearest place at which midnight 
Mass would be celebrated. True to their convic- 
tions and to the traditions of their ancestors, they 
decided to attend this function in honor of the 
Nativity of the Saviour of Mankind. This sixteen 
miles they would have to travel on foot, and for 
the most part the road was through the dense 
primeval forest. There was already a great depth 

74 



McAleek Genealogy. 

of snow upon the ground, but nothing daunted 
they set out upon the journey at mid-day. The 
sky was overcast and not a breath stirred the 
branches, not a sound disturbed the stillness. 
Slowly they plodded along through the deep snow, 
the miles doubling in length because of the difficul- 
ty of travelling. Twilight supervened during the 
early afternoon when great downy flakes of snow 
began to fall, then more and more until it seemed 
as if they were wallowing in a vast snow ball so 
densely was the air filled with falling snow. This 
greatly impeded their footsteps — but resolutely 
they held their course. Night was upon them, but 
buoyed up with the hope of receiving the Blessed 
Sacrament at the midnight Mass, they took new 
courage and kept hopefully on — and on — but oh! 
— will they ever reach their destination! Encour- 
aging each other as best they could, they at last 
came in sight of the church only to see in the dis- 
tance the lights extinguished one by one, at the 
end of Mass, and the key turned in the door of the 
church just when they arrived at its portals. Like 
Moses they reached the promised land but were 
not allowed to enter. 

Soon after, they purchased the land where they 
ever after made their home, and begun the erec- 
tion of a rude log cabin about twenty feet square 
thereon. Huge forest trees that had been grow- 
ing from time immemorial had first to be cut down 
to make the necessary room. A huge coarse stone 
fire-place was roughly constructed in one end, and 
for many years this sufficed for the heating, cook- 
ing, and frequently the lighting of the new home. 
The wife and mother, in addition to the exacting 
labors of the household, found time to assist in 
clearing the land and in planting and harvesting 

75 



McAleer Genealogy. 

the crops upon the few acres reclaimed from the 
wilderness. One summer's day a part of the hay 
crop had been raked together between the stumps 
when an impending shower prompted her to aid 
the husband and father to get it into the barn be- 
fore it would get wet — the oldest boys being still 
too young to render any assistance. With a cour- 
age born of necessity and a disposition to share 
the burdens of life, she mounted the two-wheeled 
cart then in use to build the load of hay. The load 
was nearly ready for the barn when the horse un- 
expectedly started, and a wheel striking against a 
stump, she lost her balance and was pitched head- 
long from the load and sustained a compound 
fracture of her arm. Such an accident to-day 
might not seem so terrible but when we consider 
the circumstances under which it occurred — her 
household work, her helpless children, the then 
great difficulty of obtaining medical attendance, 
and the serious interruption to the work of the 
farm and consequent loss, we can understand in a 
measure what such an accident meant to the af- 
flicted ones in those early times. 

The Papineau rebellion of 1837 furnished an- 
other painful episode in her life, although in more 
favored times she never related the experience 
without enjoying a hearty laught at her unexpect- 
ed misfortune. To prevent a general uprising of 
the dis-aflfected, whose one ambition was to give 
their country responsible government in fact as 
well as name, and to guard outlying and more im- 
portant parts, nearly all of the able-bodied men 
were called into military service — my father with 
the rest. This left my mother alone to care for 
the family, the stock in the barn, and other farm 
duties. My father had only been bringing an oc- 

76 



McAleer Genealogy. 

casional load of wood to the house during the win- 
ter, devoting most of his time to getting out logs 
and hauling them to the saw-mill in the village. 

The supply of wood for the big fireplace becom- 
ing exhausted she took the axe and sought a sup- 
ply in the nearby woods. She soon found a huge 
overturned birch tree when she gave thanks for 
her good luck in being spared the necessity for 
chopping down such a large hard-wood tree. Such 
time as she could spare during the day she exert- 
ed herself to her utmost, and when night came, al- 
though completely exhausted with the toil of the 
day, she rejoiced in having a handsome pile of 
hard-wood in the wood-box in the house and more 
in the woodshed as a reward of her vigor and in- 
dustry. 

Imagine her plight and feelings when during 
the evening she noticed her fine display of wood 
in the house degenerate into a mass of rotten rub- 
bish ! The tree had been long overturned, and the 
rotten wood, filled with the fall rains, had frozen 
so firmly as to appear like solid wood ; but now 
the heat from the fireplace thawed it out and re- 
vealed its true condition and added another to the 
list of this brave woman's disappointments and 
sorrows. 

But a sadder day dawned when my brother 
Lawrence, a mother's pride and a mother's joy, 
having reached his majority, took his departure 
to the old Bay State in 1853 — the first break in the 
family circle. The prospect of a brighter future 
induced him, as it has thousands of others of the 
most enterprising and vigorous young men from 
Canada, to make his home in a more favored land, 
and this served to assuage the pain of parting if 
it did not wholly obliterate its sting. 

77 



McAleer Genealogy. 

Three long years had run their course, and he 
was soon expected to fulfill a promise to re-visit 
the parental roof and gladden the hearts of father 
and mother and sister and brothers by the pleas- 
ures of a re-united family in the new home then in 
process of construction. Alas ! for the planning 
and expectations of man ! On a fated day, June 
6, 1856, he, with others, joined in firing a salute of 
100 guns from a cannon on the public park in the 
city of Worcester in honor of the nomination of 
James Buchanan to the Presidency of the United 
States, when the cannon was prematurely dis- 
charged and he was killed. 

A messenger from Swanton, Vermont, some 
fifteen miles away, then the nearest telegraph of- 
fice, brought the dispatch announcing the calami- 
ty. Language is entirely inadequate to describe 
the scene that followed and I shall not attempt it. 
Work upon the stone house then in process of 
erection, which was to replace the original log 
cabin and later addition thereto, was suspended, 
and my father hurriedly set out upon the sorrow- 
ful journey to attend the funeral obsequies. Anx- 
ious days and sleepless nights of seeming never 
ending duration passed away before his return, 
and meanwhile the darkened clouds grew blacker 
and the burden of sorrow bore down more heavily 
upon all the afflicted ones. His return brought no 
amelioration. Everything seemed changed, and 
passing months and years brought no sunshine to 
the home nor balm to the grief-stricken ones. 
Father never saw another well day, and he passed 
to his reward in less than three years afterwards, 
at the early age of forty-eight years when he 
should have been in his prime. 

This double affliction filled the mother's cup of 

78 



McAleer Genealogy. 

sorrow to overflowing; but recognizing lier duty 
to her large family she devoutly sought aid and 
strength from on high and resolutely faced the 
future. Her solicitude for her children knew no 
boimds, and if they failed to lead upright and use- 
ful lives, to do their full duty and win the respect 
and confidence of their neighbors and acquaint- 
ances, it cannot be attributed to negligence or 
failure on her part to do her duty, for she ever 
strove by prayers, by example, by precept, and un- 
ceasing appeal, to make them God-fearing and 
useful members of society — a credit to their re- 
ligion, to the nationality from which they sprung, 
to the name they bore, and to the country in which 
they lived. Seven years later she was called upon 
to mourn the death of the youngest member of the 
family, Francis, who died April 25, 1865, at the 
early age of fifteen years — the last family be- 
reavement that she was called upon to suffer. 

Three of her children, Barney, Mary and 
Joseph, remained with her on the old homestead, 
where they constantly and successfully labored to 
make the thirty-two remaining years of her life 
years of comfort and happiness, — not only to dis- 
charge the debt of filial devotion but also to re- 
compense her as far as possible in her declining 
years for the toil, anxiety, hardships and suffer- 
ings that she so uncomplainingly endured during 
her earlier years. Her later years were filled 
with comfort and happiness. The sunset of her 
existence came in the fullness of years, and forti- 
fied by the sacraments of the Church and in full 
confidence of realizing the promises and mercies 
of her Redeemer, she cheerfully and resignedly 
awaited the end. Her days were lengthened to 
the venerable age of eighty-five years, when the 

79 



McAleer Genealogy. 

Master's call came March 12, 1897, and she quiet- 
ly sank to rest. A large concourse of appreciative 
and sympathetic friends and neighbors attended 
her funeral obsequies at the church of Saint 
Damien in the village of Bedford, and her remains 
were interred in the graveyard adjoining the 
church. 

CHILDREN OF MILES AND JANE (McCON- 
NELL) McALEER. 

John, the eldest of the family, was born June 
25, 1830, in the Parish of Lower Bodoney, County 
Tyrone, Ireland, and came a mere child with his 
parents to Bedford in 1834, where he ever after- 
wards lived the life of a successful and prosper- 
ous farmer. 

He was married in the church of Notre Dame 
des Anges (Des Rivieries), November 12, 1861, 
to Ellen Moroney, who was born May 17, 1843, in 
the County Kilkenny, Ireland. 

They settled on a portion of the old McAleer 
Homestead farm where they ever afterwards 
made their home. They were the parents of 
seven children, Mary Jane, Agnes Ellen, Sylves- 
ter Miles, Annie Elizabeth, Dora Bernadette, Ed- 
ward Francis, Alice Theresa, — the name of Agnes 
Ellen having been inadvertently omitted from the 
accompanying Genealogical Chart or Family 
Tree. Of this family but four now survive. Agnes 
Ellen died January 17, 1890, and Dora Berna- 
dette, February 7, 1895. They are buried in the 
graveyard at the parish church of St. Damien in 
Bedford. Edward Francis, a youth of talent and 
great promise, died July 15, 1901, while a medical 
student in his second year in McGill University. 
The husband and father died October 19, 1902. 

80 



McAleer Genealogy. 

Father and son are buried in the new Roman 
Catholic graveyard north of the village of Bed- 
ford, recently a part of Edmand's farm, so-called. 
The wife and mother immigrated to Stanbridge 
with her widowed father and a brother and sister 
in A. D. 1848. 

Lawrence, the second eldest of the family, then 
a little child, came from Ireland with his parents 
in 1834, and grew to manhood in Bedford. He 
was persuaded by his cousin, Lawrence Bradley, 
to accompany him to Worcester, Mass., in 1853. 
Here he married Mary Hill, a native of Fortland, 
County Roscomman, Ireland, in Saint John's 
church, in 1855. He was accidentally killed in 
Worcester, June 6, 1856, as related elsewhere. He 
is buried in St. John's cemetery, Worcester. Their 
son, Lawrence H., was born June 16, 1856, ten 
days after the death of his father. He has always 
made his home in Worcester, where he now re- 
sides. The wife and mother died September 13, 
1900, and is buried in St. John's Cemetery, Wor- 
cester. 

Reynolds, the youngest of the family born in 
Ireland, on reaching man's estate, served a three 
years' apprenticeship with A. L. Brown in Bed- 
ford, 1852-5, to learn the Harness and Saddler's 
trade, when he also went to Worcester and found 
employment at his trade with Daniel Brown, with 
whom he remained thirteen years, when he pur- 
chased the business from his employer a short 
time before he died. A partnership was soon af- 
ter formed between him and his brother George, 
under the firm name of R. McAleer & Co., and 
they have successfully conducted this business 
down to the present time, a period of more than 
forty years. 

81 



McAjleer Genealogy. 

He was married in Saint Anne's Church, Wor- 
cester, August 15, 1864, by Very Rev. John J. 
Power, D. D., V. G., the then Pastor, to Catharine 
Dunn of Worcester. She died April 30, 1888. 

To this union were born five children, three of 
whom died in infancy. Their son George F. mar- 
ried Elizabeth W^inter of AVorcester, and they 
have a family of three children, Marion, Vera, and 
Reynolds. Their other son, William J., married 
Annie T. Kane of Worcester, where they reside. 

James was married to Electa A. Benner, a 
native of Waldoboro, Me., by Father Rossi in the 
Roman Catholic church, Saxonville, Mass., Sep- 
tember 2, 1875. Their home is in South Framing- 
ham, Mass. They have no children. 

George, the compiler and publisher of these 
records, was married to Helen Frances Kendall, 
who was born in Groton, Mass., but whose home 
has been in Worcester from early youth, June 2, 
1874, in Saint Paul's church, Worcester, Mass., by 
the Pastor, Very Rev. John J. Power, D. D., V. 
G., and they have since resided in Worcester. 

The following sketch appears in '' Historic 
Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and 
Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massa- 
chusetts : The Lewis Publishing Company, New 
York and Chicago, 1907:" 

' ' George McAleer, the subject of this sketch, one 
of a family of nine children, which consisted of 
eight sons and one daughter, was born November 
29, 1845, on the old homestead, near the village of 
Bedford, Missisquoi County, P. Q., which has been 
in the possession of the family since 1834, and the 
official record of his baptism is in the archives of 
the Roman Catholic Church in Henryville in the 
same County and Province. Naturally apt in 
learning, he completed the course at the district 

82 



McAleer Genealogy. 

school at an early age, and was sent to Stanbridge 
Academy, in his native county, an institution of 
much more than local repute, where he studied the 
classics and higher mathematics, and was gradu- 
ated in 1863. During his senior year, he taught 
classes in Latin, Greek and mathematics. He then 
took the government examination for school 
teachers, received a Diploma of the First Class, 
and taught school for a time at Hancock Hill in 
St. Armand, County of Missisquoi, Province of 
Quebec. Never an admirer of royalty nor of the 
British Government, he decided to make his home 
in the United States, a land of greater opportuni- 
ties for the young and enterprising, and in 1865 he 
located in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he 
has since made his home. He obtained employ- 
ment as book-keeper in a store of the city, and be- 
gan the study of medicine during his leisure 
hours. In 1866 he entered upon his medical course 
in Philadelphia, where he received his Degree in 
1870. 

Being of an inventive turn of mind, he had, in 
the meantime, made several inventions for which 
he had obtained Letters Patent. The Folding 
chairs made under his patents became so popular 
that they led all others in the markets of this and 
many foreign countries, and the royalties netted 
him a handsome sum. Eival manufacturers in- 
fringed upon his patents, and this led to extensive 
and expensive litigation at the time of his gradua- 
tion, which continued in the Federal Courts for 
six years, and this occupied his time so fully as to 
prevent him from engaging in the practice of his 
profession. Such snatches of time as he had at 
his command, he devoted to the aid of his brother, 
Eeynolds McAleer, who came to Worcester in 

83 



McAleer Genealogy. 

1855, where he has since made his home. Dr. 
McAleer assisted him in the management of the 
office, in the business department, and in the de- 
velopment and extension of the Harness and Sad- 
dlery business in which he was engaged, and, 
when the patent litigation had terminated suc- 
cessfully, he disposed of the Folding chair busi- 
ness and the patents under which they were made 
to good advantage. The business of his brother 
having meanwhile been expanded to profitable 
porportions. Dr. McAleer became a partner and 
the business has now been successfully conducted 
by the brothers under the firm of R. McAleer & 
Company, during the lengthened period of forty 
years. This firm is well and favorably known in 
the business world, and enjoys the patronage of 
the best families and substantial stable-keepers 
and horse owners of the city and surrounding 
country, who demand high-class, dependable 
goods. Reynolds McAleer, the senior member of 
the firm, is a master of his trade, and has been 
identified with the Harness and Saddlery business 
of the city for more than fifty years. 

When the Bay State Savings Bank was organ- 
ized in 1895, Dr. McAleer, one of the prominent 
men who had part in its organization, was elected 
Treasurer, his present position, though he still 
retains his interest in the old firm. The Bay State 
Savings Bank is located at No. 476 Main Street, 
Worcester, Massachusetts, and has a history of 
steady growth and prosperity. He is a Trustee 
of St. Vincent 's Hospital since its organization ; a 
Director of Mount St. Joseph's Industrial School, 
Millbury, Mass., since its organization; a Director 
of the Megantic Fish and Game Corporation, one 
of the leading Sportsman's Clubs of the Country; 

84 



McAleek Genealogy. 

and was a director in the Worcester Consolidated 
Street Railway when it was sold out, re-organ- 
ized and transformed into a trolley line. 

Dr. McAleer is a man of versatile tastes and 
talents. In jjolitics he is a Democrat of the old 
school, but puts men and measures above loyalty 
to party. Although frequently solicited to do so, 
he never engaged in political strife nor held pub- 
lic office. The self-assertion of office-seekers, the 
clamor for station and place, the ante-election in- 
trigue, trading, double-dealing of heelers and as- 
pirants for recognition, station and place — the 
anything to win — and the subsequent shuffling, 
backing and filling, for selfish ends or party gain, 
are to him so offensive and repellant that he 
would never lend himself to become a party there- 
to. Not desiring public office, he made his home 
in a ward having an overwhelming majority of 
Republican voters. In religion Dr. McAleer is a 
Roman Catholic and a prominent member of St. 
Paul's Church. 

A lover of nature, with his rifle, shot-gun, dog 
and trout rod, he has long been a visitor to the 
forests, fields and streams of the Old Bay State, 
on the plantations, bays, sounds, lagoons and 
marshes in the sunny South and in Northern wilds, 
— in the early days of Spring, the lengthened days 
of Summer, in the balmy days of Autumn time, 
and in the deep snows and zero weather of the 
frozen North in Winter — where the prized canvas- 
back and other sea-fowl of the coast, the bob- 
white of southern plantations, the wary ruffed 
grouse, erratic woodcock, and swift flying upland 
plover and quail of Massachusetts coverts, the 
elusive trout and fighting salmon of northern wa- 
ters, and the deer, caribou and moose of the wild- 

85 



McAleer Genealogy. 

erness in Maine, Canada, and the Maritime prov- 
inces have rewarded his knowledge, energy and 
skill. His pen and camera have often told the 
story of his adventures and success which adorn- 
ed tiie pages of many magazines and other publi- 
cations of Sportsmen's literature. His contribu- 
tions are eagerly sought by leading publishers, 
and they are always accorded a prominent place. 

Promptness, determination and reliability — 
these are characteristics of Dr. McAleer. He is 
quick to discern, quick to decide, quick to act, 
without being impetuous or erratic. 

Dr. McAleer finds pleasure along intellectual 
lines. He has a library of more than a thousand 
volumes, in which are many very rare and valua- 
ble works. His library is rich in books relating to 
the early history of the country, especially along 
unfamiliar but interesting, important and valua- 
ble lines. He has often been invited to read papers 
before civic and literary organizations, and has 
written extensively for magazines and the period- 
ical literature of the day. Some of his most im- 
portant productions are " Banks and Banking," 
'^Torquato Tasso," ''The Printed Word," "Then 
and Now," ''How Sabbatis Got His Christmas 
Dinner," "Ferncliffe," "A Christmas Reverie," 
"Reminiscent and Otherwise," "From Nature 
up to Nature's God," "Province of Quebec; Its 
History and Its People," "The Etymology of the 
Indian Place-Name Missisquoi," "An Hour with 
the Puritans and Pilgrims," etc. 

Born and reared upon a farm. Dr. McAleer was 
from boyhood greatly interested in rural life and 
improvements in cereals, fruit, and domestic ani- 
mals. He made a special study of the merits of 
the different families and best producing strains 

86 



McAleer Genealogy. 

of the different blood lines that unite in the high- 
est type of horse — the American trotter. In later 
years, he has bred several horses that in produc- 
ing blood lines, size, conformation, style and 
speed took rank with the best in the show ring, on 
the road, and on the race track. 

Dr. McAleer is a member of the famous Ragged 
Islands Club of Virginia — the most famous Sea- 
fowl club on the Atlantic coast — the Megantic 
Club of Maine and Canada, an honorary life mem- 
ber of the Missisquoi County Historical Society, 
and other Sportsmen's clubs and civic and liter- 
ary organizations. 

He married, June 2, 1874, Helen Frances Ken- 
dall, daughter of Joel and Mary Martha Kendall, 
of Worcester, Massachusetts. She was born in 
Groton, Massachusetts, and came to Worcester in 
early girlhood, where she has lived ever since. 
They have no children. ' ' 

Barney, Mary and Joseph never married. They 
have always lived upon the old homestead upon 
which they were born and where they devoted the 
best years of their lives to making a good home 
for our mother and bringing sunshine into her de- 
clining years. They have lived quiet, useful and 
upright lives, — such lives as are the foundation 
stones and bulwark of a country, — rather than to 
thrust themselves forward into the lime-light of 
station and place. No stain blemishes their char- 
acter — their integrity is unquestioned. 

Francis, the youngest member of the family, 
whose name was inadvertently omitted in the ac- 
companying family tabulation, died April 25, 
1865, of cerebro-spinal meningitis, when fifteen 
years old, and is buried in the graveyard with his 

87 



McAleer Genealogy. 

father at Notre Dame Des Anges, Des Kivieries. 
JOHN, the sixth child of Lawrence McAleer^ 
married Elizabeth McNulty at St. Anthanase, 
now Iberville, Province of Quebec, and soon 
after removed to Battenville, N. Y., where he 
died many years ago. He left a family but I 
have no trace of them. 
BEIDGET, the seventh child of Lawrence 
McAleer-, who came to Canada with her father 
and his other unmarried children in 1831, was 
married in St. Johns, Lower Canada, in 1847, to 
Thomas Fox, a native of the parish of Munter- 
loney. County Tyrone, Ireland, who immigrated 
to Canada in 1842. For a time they made their 
home in the Stone settlement so-called, in the 
County Missisquoi ; but then, as now, the great 
Western country attracted the brave and ad- 
venturous — although what was then remote 
from civilization and known as the far distant 
west is now regarded as but little westward 
from the Atlantic coast. 

In 1855 they cast in their lot with those West- 
ern pioneers and made a new home in the State of 
Wisconsin, then largely inhabited by Indians. 
Only short lines of steam railways between the 
more important centers of population were then 
in existence, and such western journeys were gen- 
erally made on slow-moving teams of horses and 
oxen unless the destination could be reached by 
lakes or rivers. 

Thus started Thomas Fox with his wife, child- 
ren, all his worldly belongings and a supply of 
food, from their home and relatives and friends 
on their long and painful journey to the westward 
never again to retrace their steps nor see their 
kith and kin. 

88 



McAleer Genealogy. 

In answer to my request for some data in rela- 
tion to his migration, the reasons therefor, the 
route taken, etc., he wrote to me under date of 
March 19, 1895, the following : 

* * I wanted to have a home of my own and be in- 
dependent of landlords and British laws. I left 
Ireland in 1842 and arrived in Bedford in July of 
that year. In 1847 I married your Aunt Bridget 
in St. Johns, and settled down in the Stone settle- 
ment where we remained until 1855, when we 
came West. We took our departure from your 
home in Bedford and went to your Uncle Barney 
McGuire's at St. Brigide, and next day started 
for Montreal with a team where we took passage 
on the Jenny Lind to Lewiston. We touched at 
Ogdensburg, Kingston, Oswego, and finally reach- 
ed Lewiston, near the mouth of the Niagara river 
and some seventeen miles below the falls, where 
we remained all day. At 5 o 'clock in the afternoon 
we took the train to Buffalo. From Buffalo we 
journeyed to Chicago by the Michigan Central 
Railway where we took a boat to Milwaukee, stop- 
ping in Kenosha and Racine. We remained in 
Milwaukee one week, and then went to Waukesha 
twenty-five miles by railway, the first built in the 
State. Land was too dear for me there, and after 
staying there two years we again set out by rail 
to Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi, then by 
boat to Lacrosse, Winoni, to Wabasha, and then 
overland twenty-two miles to Durand where we 
have since made our home." Here he became a 
successful farmer which occupation he followed 
for more than forty years. The wife and mother 
answered the summons of the Master, February 
25, 1895. The following obituary appeared in the 
Pepin Co. Courier, Durand, Wisconsin, March 1, 
1895: 

89 



McAleer Genealogy. 
DEATH OF MRS. THOMAS FOX. 

Another of the old pioneers of this section was 
carried to her last resting place, St. Mary's Ceme- 
tery, on Wednesday. Mrs. Thomas Fox died at 
her home in Maxville, February 25, 1895, aged 
nearly 83 years. Bridget McAleer, her maiden 
name, was born in the Parish of Lower Bodoney, 
Comity Tyrone, Ireland, April 11, 1812, and came 
to America with her father's family in 1831. 
April 20th, 1847, she was married to Thomas Fox 
and came to this valley in 1857, settling in Max- 
ville, where they have ever since resided. They 
were the parents of seven sons, five of whom are 
still living, and all of whom were at her bedside in 
her last moments. She had eighteen grandchild- 
ren and five great-grandchildren, all of whom are 
living and all attended the funeral on Wednesday. 
Her sons are all residents of this section, John L., 
Joseph A., George M., Francis C, and James B. 
Fox. 

The husband and father survived the wife and 
mother something over six years. The following 
obituary appeared in the same paper, August 9, 
1901 : 

PASSED FROM EARTH. 



Thouias Fox an Aged Citizen and Pioneer of this 
Valley Called Home. 



Another of the pioneers of this valley passed 
from this earth on the 2d instant when Thomas 
Fox of Maxville died at his residence in that town 
after a very painful and lingering illness, due to 
cancer of the face. He bore his sufferings with 
great patience and expressed in his last hours a 

90 



McAleek Genealogy. 

wish that God's will be done. Death came to him 
as a happy relief from the intense pain he had for 
months endured. Mr. Fox was born in the Coun- 
ty Tyrone, Ireland, in 1818, and came to Canada 
in 1842 where in 1847 he married Miss Bridget 
McAleer. He lived in Canada ten years when he 
removed to Waukesha, Wisconsin, where he re- 
mained until 1856 when he came to this County 
where he lived a year, then moving into the town 
of Maxville forty-four years ago and where he 
continued to live until his death, he and his wife 
sharing in the struggles incident to pioneer days. 
Mr. Fox was a kind and obliging neighbor and his 
many friends will miss him. Seven children came 
to gladden their home, five of whom survive him, 
— John L., of Chippewa Falls, Joseph Francis, 
and James B., of Maxville, and George W., of this 
city. Mr. Fox was a respected member of the 
Catholic church, and was buried with the rites of 
that church on Sunday last, his remains being laid 
at rest by the side of his wife, who died in 1895, in 
St. Mary's Cemetery, Rev. C. B. Weikman officiat- 
ing." 



In early times the laws of Canada were adopted 
from the Cotumes of different Arrondissments 
in France, although more were based upon or tak- 
en in their entirety from the Cotume de Paris 
than from any other. Soon after the Treaty of 
Paris, in 1763, the in-coming English settlers en- 
deavored to supplant the various and unharmon- 
ious Cotumes by the English civil and criminal 
law, but in this they encountered so much opposi- 
tion from the earlier settlers, who were not favor- 
able to the introduction of new laws with which 

91 



McAleer Genealogy. 

they were not familiar, that they were but indif- 
ferently successful. 

Dreading the action of her recalcitrant colonists 
along the Atlantic seaboard, which a little later 
resulted in open rebellion and independence ; to 
win the friendship of the Canadians and to pre- 
vent their union with the rebellious Colonists; 
and, moreover, that by appeasing the Canadians, 
who still smarted from the tribulations of the 
Seven Years War and the humiliations of defeat ; 
and, moreover, that she might have a safe har- 
bour in which to land her army and military 
stores ; England, in 1774, passed the "Bill for 
making more effectual provision for the Govern- 
ment of the Province of Quebec," which is com- 
monly known in history at the "Quebec Act." 
This measure was a practical abdication by Eng- 
land of everything in Canada save allegiance to 
the Crown ; and it conceded and confirmed to the 
Canadians all the rights and privileges hitherto 
enjoyed by them under the fostering care of 
France— their laws, language and religion. 

While the concessions embraced in this Act had 
the desired effect of conciliating the Canadians 
and holding their allegiance, it served to endorse 
and perpetuate many obnoxious and confusing 
laws that were little understood and less appreci- 
ated by in-coming settlers from the British Isles. 
These laws and customs were particularly unsat- 
isfactory to them in the matter of property— its 
acquisition, its transmission by sale, devisement, 
or otherwise, the rights of the surviving husband 
or wife, in case of persons dying intestate, primo- 
geniture, the rights of heirs, etc. These matters 
wei-e so intricate, involved and unsatisfactory, 
that many people, when about to enter the mar- 

92 



McAleer Genealogy. 

ried state, executed a marriage contract to settle 
such matter for all time in accordance with their 
own wishes. At the time of their marriage, 
Thomas Fox and Bridget McAleer executed such 
a contract before the legally constituted authori- 
ties, which is reproduced herewith verhatum et 
literatum. 

MARRIAGE CONTRACT OF THOMAS FOX 
AND BRIDGET M'ALEER. 

Be it remembered that on this nineteeth day of 
the Month of April in the Year of Our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and forty-seven in the 
afternoon. 

Before the undersigned Public Notaries admit- 
ted and Sworn in and for that part of the Prov- 
ince of Canada, Constituting heretofore the Prov- 
ince of Lower Canada, residing in the District of 
Montreal, in the said Province, and in the County 
De Rouville — • 

Personally came and appeared Sieur Thomas 
Fox of the Township of Stanbridge, farmer, is- 
sued of the lawful marriage of Sr. Owen Fox with 
Grace Fox, the said Thomas Fox here present of 
the one part : 

And Miss Bridget McAleer of the Town of St. 
John's, Dorchester, being in age of majority, is- 
sued of the lawful marriage of Sr. Lawrence Mc- 
Aleer with Dame Mary McCulloch, the said Brid- 
get McAleer here present of the other part — 

Which said parties in the presence of us the 
said Notaries and with the agreement and consent 
of their relations and friends hereafter named 
respectively, to wit : From the part of the said 
Thomas Fox assisted of Lewis Bourdon, Esquire, 
his friend, 

93 



McAleer Genealogy. 

And from the part of the said Bridget McAleer 
assisted by Sr. Lawrence McAleer his father — did 
and do hereby declare, promise, stipulate coven- 
ant and agree to and with each other in manner 
and form following that is to say the said Thomas 
Fox did and doth hereby promise to take the said 
Bridget McAleer to be his lawful and wedded wife 
and the said Bridget McAleer did and doth here- 
by promise to take the said Thomas Fox to be her 
lawful and wedded husband, the said marriage 
shall be solemnized forthwith in due form of law — 

And in the view of the said intended marriage 
by Divine permission to be had and solemnized be- 
tween the said Thomas Fox and the said Bridget 
McAleer that the said parties to these presents in 
the presence of us the said Notaries aforesaid, of 
their relation and friend heretofore named, and 
do hereby expressly declare, stipulate, covenant 
and agree that a Communaute de hiens, or Com- 
munion of property, shall not at any time here- 
after by reason of the said intended marriage or 
on any other pretence whatsoever be or exist be 
tween the said Thomas Fox and the said Bridget 
McAleer notwithstanding the Cotume de Paris 
and all and every other Law, usage or Custom of 
the said Province of Canada, to which and all and 
every of which the said parties to these presents 
did in the presence of us the said Notaries, re- 
nounce and derogate from and did declare to be 
renoimced and wholly derogated from in the 
premises and of no effect whatsoever by reason 
whereof the said Thomas Fox and the said Brid- 
get McAleer shall and will severally and respec- 
tively have, possess and enjoy their several and 
res])ective properties and estates, real and person- 
al, movable and immovable, which they now own 

94 



McAleek Genealogy. 

and ma}' hereafter acquire by gift, legacy, pur- 
chase, inheritance or otherwise as their own sep- 
arate properties and estates in every respect ab- 
solutely clear, exonerated, free and discharged of 
and from all debts and all and every encumbran- 
ces, mortgages, claims and demands of any kind 
whatsoever proceeding from the acts or premises 
of the other in as ample a manner as if they had 
remained single. It is further agreed that the 
said Thomas Fox shall and will pay and bear all 
house expenses, as also all necessary and decent 
apparel and other personal requisites for the said 
Bridget McAleer after the said intended mar- 
riage, as also to procure for the child or children 
which may be born from the said intended mar- 
riage the necessary support and education without 
the said Bridget McAleer or her property being 
in any wise held or bound for the same or any part 
thereof — 

And in the further view of the said intended mar- 
riage and in the presence of us and Notaries with 
the agreement and consent of the relation and 
friend heretofore named the said Thomas Fox for 
and in consideration of the love and affection 
which he hath and beareth to the said Bridget Mc- 
Aleer did and doth hereby give, grant, and con- 
firm to the said Bridget McAleer here present 
and accepting thereof, the fruition of the land 
hereafter described with also the fruition of the 
movables of the present Community of goods, or 
communion of property in money or otherwise, 
provided always if the said Bridget McAleer sur- 
vives the said Thomas Fox ; and the said Thomas 
Fox shall have the same right and fruition in the 
half the goods of said Bridget McAleer in the 
case of survivorship — 

95 



McAleek Genealogy. 

The goods that the said Thomas Fox brings for- 
ward to the present Communaute de Mens, con- 
sist in a land or parcel of land lying situate and 
being in the said Township of Stanbridge, with 
all and every members and appurtenances there- 
unto belonging — well known as the lot number 15, 
on which lot is built a house erectedy upon it, with 
about twelve or fifteen acres cleared upon it. 
Brings also to the present Communaute de hiens 
some movables as a clock, a trunk, with also a sum 
of twenty-four pounds and ten Shillings of this 
Province currency — 

And the goods that the said Bridget McAleer 
brings to the same Communaute de hiens consist 
in the following movable property: Two cows 
valued at eight pounds of this Province, three 
ewes at one pound and ten shillings, a bed and 
bedding at three pounds and fifteen shillings, a 
trunk at ten shillings, half dozen cups and saucers 
at two shillings, one dozen of plates at two shil- 
lings and three pences, one dozen of spoons two 
shillings, half dozen knives and forks at five shil- 
lings, a sugar bowl two shillings, a tea pot one 
shilling and six pences, a wash bowl eleven pences, 
two meat dishes two shillings and six pences, one 
pail one shilling and three pences, a pitcher one 
shilling and eight pences, a looking glass one shil- 
ling and six pences, a bedstead and a bed tick one 
pound and five shillings, making an amount or es- 
timation of sixteen pounds ten shillings and seven 
pences — 

Shalt have and hold the Survivor of the present 
husband and wife, by form of Jointure (Preciput) 
on the movable goods of the present Communaute 
de hiens or Communion of property for a sum of 
Seven Pounds of this Province currency, in money 

96 



McAleer Genealogy. 

or in movables over and above his part in the 
goods of the present Communaute de Mens (Com- 
munion of property) and without increase {la 
crue) with also a bed garnished as it will be at 
that time — with a cupboard or chest of drawers 
and the clothes and all linen for his proper usages 
and his jewels for the wife — 

And it is hereby expressly covenanted and 
agreed that a sum of Twelve Pounds and Ten 
Shillings said Currency so to be paid unto the 
said Bridget McAleer shall be in lieu, bar and sat- 
isfaction of Dower of every description and every 
other matrimonial right or advantage whatsoever, 
which by the laws of said Province of Canada, she, 
the said Bridget McAleer, might or could claim by 
reason of the said intended marriage and for the 
insinuation thereof, and for the enregistrement of 
these presents, when and where the same may be- 
come necessary, the parties have Constituted the 
bearer hereof, their attorney, to whom they give 
all necessary power and authority to that effect 
and for the payment of the aforesaid sum of 
Twelve Pounds and Ten Shillings that the said 
Thomas Fox hath bound, charged, mortgaged and 
hypothecated the whole of his real and personal 
property as well as that which he hath already ac- 
quired as that which he may hereafter acquire — 
This done and passed at the Parish of Ste. 
Brigide of Monnoir, in the office of M. D. Meunier, 
one of the said Notaries, the month, day and year 
first above written, and the said Thomas Fox have 
signed with us the said Notaries, these presents 
having been first duly read in the presence of the 
parties with Mr. Bourdon and the said Bridget 
McAleer with Mr. Lawrence McAleer, his father 



97 



McAleer Genealogy. 

have declared not to be able being duly required to 
do so. 

Signed Thomas Fox. 

L. Bourdon. 

Bridget McAleer. 

Lawrence McAleer. 
Th. Lemay, Jr., N. P. 
M. D. Meunier, Not. Pub. 

A true copy of the original remains on record in 
my office. 

The children of Thomas and Bridget (McAleer) 

Fox married as follows : 

John L., Elizabeth Stringer ; Joseph F., Annie 

Patterson ; Francis C, Margaret Melrose ; George 

W., Mary Costello; James B., Isabelle Melrose; 

Stephen, Mary Belknap. 

JANE, the eighth and youngest child of Law- 
rence", came to Canada with her father, brother 
John, and sisters, Mary and Bridget, in 1831. 
The. names of all the children of Lawrence" 
should have appeared in chronological order in 
the accompanying genealogical chart or family 
tree, but owing to the printer's error her name 
was given the place in the tabulation where her 
sister Bridget's should be, instead of being 
placed last in the list. She was married to Fran- 
cis McCall in 1847, and they ever after made 
their home in Ste. Brigide. To this union were 
born seven children, two daughters and five 
sons — Mary Cecelia, Annie Patrick, Lawrence, 
James, Frank and Hugh — Lawrence and James 
being twins. The wife and mother died Febru- 
ary 29, 1866, aged 42 years, and the husband 
and father died November 29, 1898, aged 83 
years. Both are buried in the parish graveyard 
in Ste. Brigide. 

98 



McAleer Family Data. 

DATA FURNISHED BY AUNT MARY 

(McALEER) McGUIRE. 

Ste. Brigide, d 'Iberville County, 

Province Quebec, March 15, 1879. 
My dear Nephew George : 

I do not know how to excuse myself for not 
sooner answering your very welcome letter of 
October 28, 1878. I delayed writing to you from 
time to time hoping to be able to recall or acquire 
all the information that you seek, but as this now 
seems unlikely, if not impossible, I send you what 
I can. 

Your grandfather, Lawrence McAleer, was 
twice married. His first wife's name was Cathar- 
ing Gormley, and his second wife's name, Mary 
McCullough. To the first union two children were 
born, Catharine and Ann, and to the last there 
were six, Theresa, Mary, Miles, John, Bridget 
and Jane, named in the order of their birth. Both 
wives died and were buried in Ireland. 

Ann married James Daley, in Ireland, where 
they passed the remainder of their days. Cathar- 
ine married John Bradley. They had two chil- 
dren, Lawrence and Mary. Bradley died in Ire- 
land in early manhood. 

The widow Bradley and her two children came 
to Canada with your imcle, Michael McCullough, 
in 1847. 

Your grandfather's principal business in Ire- 
land was farming, although he was a stone mason 
by trade, and sometimes worked at that business. 
When he came to Canada he bought some land 
from Ishmael Corey at a place called the Ridge, 
about midway between the villages of Bedford and 
Stanbridge East, in the Township of Stanbridge, 
County Missisquoi, Lower Canada, where he made 

99 



McAleer Family Data. 

his home until compelled by old age and infirmity 
to abandon it. 

He immigrated to Canada to escape from the 
cruel injustice, bitter persecution, and brutalizing 
British laws and their more cruel and iniquitous 
enforcement by irresponsible, wanton, licentious 
soldiery, and aggrandizing and cruel officials. 

No relative or friends had preceded him ; he 
came a stranger among strangers and buried him- 
self in the wilderness where he succeeded in carv- 
ing out an humble home for himself and his chil- 
dren. He died at my home in Ste. Brigide, May 
23, 1850, aged 69 years, and is buried in the Roman 
Catholic graveyard of that parish. 

Your Aunt Theresa was married to Michael Mc- 
Cullough of the parish of Drumles Bar, in the 
County of Tyrone, Ireland. 

Your aunt Bridget was married in Canada to 
Thomas Fox, a native of the parish of Munter- 
loney, County Tyrone, Ireland. 

Your aunt Jane married Francis McCall, in 
Canada. 

Your paternal great-grandfather's family con- 
sisted of nine children, named Ann, Ellen, Susan, 
Shibbey, Mary, Lawrence, Michael, Miles and 
Patrick. 

Ann married Peter McCullough ; Ellen, Philip 
McCullough; Susan, Patrick Martin; Shibbey, 

Patrick Woods ; Mary ; Lawrence, 

Catharine Gormley, for his first wife, and Mary 

McCullough for his second; Michael, ; 

Miles, Ellen McKeon or McGowan; Patrick, Ann 
McKeon or McGowan, the last two being sisters, 
but I am not sure as to the spelling of their names. 

Your great-grandfather's name on your grand- 

100 



McAlebk Family Data. 

father 's side was Hugh McAleer, and his wife 's 
name was Catharine Keenan. My mother's fath- 
er's name was Hugh McCuUough, and his wife's 
name was Catharine Hamilton. 

All your father's people, as far back as I can 
remember, were born and lived in a place called 
Coneyglen in the parish of Bodoney, County Ty- 
rone. 

I regret that I cannot furnish you with more in- 
formation now, but your further inquiries may 
serve to recall other things to my memory, and if 
so, I will take great pleasure in communicating 
them to you. With kind remembrances to yourself 
and to my other nephews, believe me. 

Very affectionately your Aunt, 

Maky McGuire. 

And in answer to other questions later she 
again wrote, under date of February 26, 1883 : 

Your grandfather, Lawrence McAleer, was mar- 
ried when he was seventeen years old. He mar- 
ried his second wife, Mary McCullough, in the 
parish of Glenelly, County Tyrone. She died in 
the parish of Bodoney. 

Smarting under the exasperating persecutions, 
oppressions and brutalizing treatment of unbrid- 
led English mercenaries, as had his ancestors for 
centuries, your grandfather had fully determined, 
cost what it might, to turn his back forever upon 
the land and graves of his people and make for 
himself and his growing family a home in the land 
of the free under the Stars and Stripes in the New 
World, but at the last moment he was persuaded 
by a man by the name of Rafferty to ac- 
company him to Upper Canada, where help was 
wanted to work in a paper mill, for which good 

101 



McAleer Family Data. 

pay was promised, and where he claimed the trials 
and tribulations inflicted upon the people in Ire- 
land were unknown. 

Accompanied by his children, John, Bridget, 
Jane and myself, we set sail in the ship John 
Thompson from Belfast, in 1831. We were forced 
to endure many hardships and privations, on 
board ship that would not now be tolerated, and 
in addition we had a very rough and tempestuous 
voyage to Quebec, where we transferred to a 
steamboat and ascended the river to Montreal. 

The vessel in which we were to make the trip 
from Montreal to Upper Canada became so dis- 
abled in a storm that it was said ten days or two 
weeks would be required in which to make neces- 
sary repairs before she could depart ; and a vio- 
lent wind storm arising meanwhile did much dam- 
age to property and to ships in the harbor, where 
four were wrecked. 

Father said that a merciful Providence had sent 
us safe thus far, and it would seem like tempting 
Him to travel farther upon the water, and that he 
never would venture upon the water again. 

Inquiring if there were any Irish people settled 
where they could be reached by going overland, 
he was directed to the Township of Stanbridge, in 
Missisquoi County. 

Hither we came, over well-nigh impassable 
roads, in the old-fashioned, two-wheeled carts of 
the habitants, and it has been many times dis- 
cussed, without reaching a conclusion, which were 
the more dangerous — the vessels at sea or the 
rudely constructed carts over the execrable roads 
on the land. 

Arriving at Bedford we found quite a number 
of settlers from Ireland, who gave us a cordial 

102 



McAleer Family Data. 

welcome — the welcome that afflicted hearts know 
so well how to extend. 

Your grandfather worked, for a short while, in 
a tannery, in what is now the village of Bedford, 
but which at that time was simply a few log cabins 
for the workmen — the surrounding country being 
largely a wilderness. 

Soon after he bought some land from Ishmael 
Corey, on the Ridge, where, for a time, we made 
our home. 

Theresa married Michael McCullough, in Ire- 
land, in 1829. I married Barney McGuire in 1835. 
Bridget married Thomas Fox in 1847, and Jane 
married Francis McCall in 1847. 

We all went to school in Ireland. 

Very affectionately your Aunt, 

Mary McGuirb. 




103 



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